Young and Fearless
by BlitzKraig
Summary: A new group of young heroes arise in Beach City. Join Sadie, Lars, Ronaldo, Jenny, Sour Cream, and Buck on an adventure to become something greater than themselves. With the crystal gems busy with the cluster and Malachite Young and fearless citizens must come together to protect their home and the ones they love. Trust me this is going to be good. Give it a shot. Larsadi SourJenn
1. Restless At Midnight

Disclaimer: Steven Universe

(A/N: Hello everyone, it excites me to present to you my first published Steven Universe fanfiction. This was inspired by a piece of fan-art that I saw and instantly loved. You may have seen it yourself; it's a picture of Buck standing in between Jenny and Sour Cream. Buck is wearing gloves, Jenny has a whip, and Sour Cream had a katana; each one posed with their respective weapons. I won't be ripping this off; I'll be assigning weapons to everyone. Like I said in the summary I know that this isn't the kind of thing people are looking for, so if you find this and like it say so in the reviews and I'll keep on typing for you. Please enjoy.)

 **Chapter 1: restless at midnight**

Sadie and Lars walked up the familiar path to the lighthouse that Ronaldo typically secluded himself in. She let out a visible breath, even though it was summer it was midnight and the temperature was dropping rapidly. She looked at her watch and then the note that she had found on the back door of the big donut while she was locking up. The note said _Sadie. Meet me at the lighthouse at midnight. It is very important. I'm sorry that I can't disclose more information. P.s: bring Lars too._ She then looked over too Lars, who looked like he would rather be anywhere else, and he definitely would be if Sadie hadn't said that she was going.

"Cheer up, Lars. Did you really have anything better to do?" She said as they approached the door to Ronaldo's hideout.

"Of course I did!" He half yelled as he did with half of everything that came out of his mouth. Sadie had learned to live with this and wasn't even slightly perturbed.

"Oh really and what might that be?" She asked teasingly. Lars raked his mind desperately for an answer.

"Sleep is very important, Sadie," He said with his usual fake confidence in hopes of quenching this fire.

"Ha-ha, you can sleep later, you grandpa," She joked while rapping on the door. A moment later Ronaldo answered; he had his militaristic outfit on, accompanied by his serious expression.

"Lars, Sadie glad you could join us. Come on the others are waiting upstairs," He said as he led the others up the winding steps. Lars immediately remembered the horror he felt during his last visit.

"So, Ronaldo what was it that you needed to tell us?" Sadie asked, having been curious about the subject since she picked the note up four hours ago.

"Yeah what did you drag us out here at the dead of night for?!" Lars half yelled angrily.

"All will be explained shortly," He said calmly as he opened the door leading out of the stair well. Jenny, Buck, and Sour looked behind them on the couch.

"Oh, hey guys I didn't know you were coming," Jenny called out to them enthusiastically.

"Have a seat, we can begin now," he said while walking up to a slide show projector and white screen in front of the couch. Once Lars and Sadie found a place to sit Ronaldo started the slide show.

"First off I just wanted to thank you all for coming. I can assure you that the proposition that I am about to make you is of upmost importance," He pressed the button on the projector remote. The screen now depicted an action shot of the crystal gems including Steven and Peridot. "I'm sure that you're all familiar with at least some of the individuals in this picture am I right?" He received a nod from each of the teens. "They call themselves the crystal gems, and their job is to deal with threats like these," he pressed his button and the screen showed a picture of the centibeetle, then the red eye, then the puffer fish.

"Hey, Jenny you're in this one," Buck said in his usual stoic tone.

"Oh yeah I remember that," She chimed happily.

"These are crystal beasts a form of gem that has been corrupted and taken on the form of animals or just flat out monsters," Ronaldo explained before flipping to another picture of a force fusion. "This is a force fusion, two or more shards of different shattered gems that have been welded together and then proceeded to make their projection in demented and twisted forms,"

"What does any of this have to do with us?'" Lars asked impatiently.

"My employer has been informed that the gems will be too busy apprehending adversaries called the cluster and Malachite to deal with these smaller, yet still drastic threats. The reason I have called you all here is because most of you have had experience with these creatures and containing them, you also appeared to be friends with one another and proved to be able to work well together,"

"You expect us to fight those things!?" Lars shouted in disbelief

"Wait, employer?" Buck asked.

"Yes, my employer," Mayor Dewy stepped out from behind the white screen.

"Dad?!"

"Hey, son," he responded

"But, why?" Buck asked having the hardest time wrapping his head around this. Dewy straightened his face.

"Look these things are drawn to this city, the temple to be specific, and somebody's got to protect this place. I can't trust the police are government with this,"

"That's right; if the government found out about this they would just take the gems and use them for war like they do with everything else!" Ronaldo shouted, having been riled up at the mention of the government.

"But you kids know what needs to be done. You can protect this city I know it, so what I'm trying to say if you want to be heroes join in, but if you want to go on with your normal lives, I can understand that and you're free to leave," Silence settled in the room. This was a lot for the teens to take in. Sadie was the first to respond.

"I'm in," She said confidently.

"Are you crazy?!" Lars shouted.

"Think about it, Lars we've been given a chance to become something greater. A chance to live an exciting life, an adventurous life, if I don't take this chance I'll look back on my life and see nothing but mundane and boring days, and moths, and years. Haven't you ever wanted something more?" She looked to the others present. "Haven't any of you?" Buck leaned forward.

"I'm in," he said with the same level of confidence as Sadie had.

"I'm in," Sour replied.

"I'm in," Jenny responded. Sadie looked Lars in the eye and he looked back. Finally he sighed and said

"If you're in, then I'm in," he said with no fear in his voice.

"Excellent, here I just need you to sign these," Dewy said as he handed each of the teens an application for the position of night guard. "This will be your cover; every night at midnight you'll meet up here and do runs around the city to make sure there are no monsters running amuck and at six AM you go back home and go about your business. Expect your checks in the mail." Dewy said before walking back down stairs to wait for his son to come back down so he could give him a ride.

"Welcome to the team, guys!" Ronaldo cheered, letting his serious demeanor drop. "So first things first, just as a formality, I nominate Sadie as leader," He said pointing to the short, yet deceivingly strong young woman in front of him. Sadie was a little taken aback at this.

"Why me? "She asked sheepishly.

"I've witnessed firsthand your leadership skills and ability to think under pressure while avoiding panic," He looked up at Lars. "Lars, you've witnessed it to,"

"Yeah I was there, she's definitely better in a crisis than I am," He responded without a second thought much to Sadie's gratification.

"If you guys say so I'm not going to disagree, but I'm a bit more concerned with coming up a team name," Sour said calmly.

"Ooh I've got one, I always said that if I started a band that I would use this name for it," Sadie said excitedly.

"Well then let's hear it," Jenny chimed enthusiastically as usual.

"Young and Fearless,"

(A/N: Endings are hard. Anyway like I said review and follow if you want to see more)


	2. Working Out The Kinks

Disclaimer: I don't own Steven Universe

(A/N: I really didn't expect to take off as fast as I did. Already I have a bunch of reviews and favorites, but mysteriously no follows so I hope you guys find this.

Niteowl18: Thank you

Demmo-nisshu: Thank you and yes, but they won't be a part of the team.

Dante Watterson: Thanks

Y2K partay: Thank you

Reliefintheeast: Thank you

Guest: Thank you

Sorry if I missed any one.)

 **Chapter 2: Working out the kinks**

At noon the next day the team sans Lars and Ronaldo met at a hardware store to look for supplies to fight the gem beasts and force fusions that they were sure to encounter. Their options were limited to melee weapons as mayor Dewy had distinctly forbidden the use of guns, in fear that the consistent gunshots at night would raise suspicion. Each teen split off on their own to look for their mode of protection. Sadie walked down an isle that stored different metal cylinders of various lengths and thicknesses. She saw one that was the exact same shape and size as the spear that she had used while on the island. She picked it up to test the weight; it was definitely heavier than the wooden spear, but the wooden spear was rather light to begin with. She looked to both sides of her to make sure no one was around before she gave an experimental stab. Surely it would be best to stick to what she knew. She walked out of the isle, looking for assistance, which she quickly found in the form of a middle aged man.

"Excuse me sir, could you sharpen this to a point for me? Some friends of mine or going to use it for a tether ball pole," She impressed herself with how easily she came up with the lie.

"Sure thing, I'll just take this to the grinder in the back and have it out to you in no time," He said while taking the rod and starting off.

"Thanks," She replied. Sadie then left to see how one of the others were fairing so that she wasn't just standing awkwardly in the store. She Found Buck first by happenstance. He was looking down the blade of an axe that one would use to split wood or cut down a tree with.

"Have any luck?" She asked. Buck swung the blade at the air and let a satisfied smile shone through his stoic exterior.

"This'll do," he said as he ran his finger across the blade resulting in a shallow cut. "This'll do great. C'mon let's find the others." He said while starting forward. On the way they found Sour who had chosen a mid-length machete as his weapon, and then Jenny who had just had a length of chain cut for her.

"You chose chains?" Sour asked as if to say are you sure?

"Yeah, I mean there must be a reason that gangsters use them, right? Seriously though, guys don't this feel unreal? To think that we're actually doing this; it's like a dream or something," She said in an indifferent tone that didn't lean towards one emotion or the other.

"Yeah it sort of does feel like that, like we're in a movie or something," Sour agreed. Just then the man who had taken Sadie's request came around the corner.

"There you are, I've got your pole ready," he handed off the rod before noticing the group of heavily armed teens. "Heh you all look like you're ready to kill someone," The employee joked. When the other's started to show nervous tells Sadie stepped in.

"No we're just doing some yard work. You know pull out a stump, cut up a shrub or two the usual," Again Sadie surprised herself with how easily she came up with that lie. He nodded and waved to the left.

"Come on, and I'll ring you up,"

The whole team met at Ronaldo's lighthouse to report for duty. All except for Buck and Sour came in different clothes. Lars wore a dark red hoodie and windbreaker pants; he had a bow and quiver on his back. Sadie came in a black leather jacket and jeans with her new spear clutched tightly in her right hand, and bowie knife on her hip. Jenny came in a thick fabric jacket and sneakers rather than flats, her chain wrapped around her torso, and strange red canister on her belt. Renaldo wore his camo outfit again, but this time with a katana on his back (Just like Michone).

"I didn't know you could use a bow," Sadie commented. Lars looked to her.

"Y-yeah I learned from back when I was a boy scout. I got all the patches in archery," he got flustered in anticipation, expecting to be teased for being in the boy scouts.

"That's pretty cool," She said with a smile.

"Thanks," he said, letting his flush disappear.

"Alright guys we're officially on the clock. You ready for your first night?" Renaldo chimed with glee as he walked to the exit. The others let out hoots and hollers as they followed behind him. They all wedged themselves into Jenny's car, with Ronaldo sitting on the console. The road was empty and the music was playing just loud enough that the gang could hear it. A shrill inhuman screeched filled the air and startled everyone in the car. Naturally Jenny pulled over immediately. They walked off the road and instantly saw what made the noise. A disemboweled cow lay dead on its side much to the group's dismay.

"Stay on your toes these, cut are clean; whatever made them is really sharp," Sadie called to her teammates. Just then Jenny felt a drop of warm liquid plop onto her forehead. She looked up to its origin; a lean lizard shaped monster, with brown leathery skin, and sharp claws clings to the top of a telephone poll. She screams, alerting the monster and making it his before it jumped down onto the ground.

"A thin quadruped that relies on its agility, speed, and sharp claws to make up for its lack of strength; Codename Belial," Ronaldo analyzed as he drew his sword. Buck rushed the best and swung his axe down, the monster dodged out of the way and the blade only ended up piercing the tar. Once to the side Belial leaped for Buck, but only to be hit out of the air by Sadie's spear. When it landed Sour was ready for it and lashed out with his mid-range blade. Belial moved just enough to be grazed by the machete, and retaliated by back handing Sour across the face, sending him to the ground. While it was busy with its current prey Sadie checked Belial with her spear, sending against the telephone pole on the other side of the road. It raised its clawed hand ready to strike the blond woman.

"Sadie!" Lars cried out as he shot an arrow through Belial's hand, and pinning it to the pole. Slowly it tried to pull its hand off the arrow and free itself.

"I don't think so!" Jenny yelled as she wrapped her chain around Belial's throat and the telephone pole. She put her feet up on the wood and leaned back, letting the chains keep her up, and letting all of her weight crush the beast's windpipe. Ronaldo yelled while he charged Belial and forced his sword through its chest. It let out a shrill cry before poofing away and letting the red gem fall form its place on the front of Belial's neck. Ron picked the gem up and looked at his team.

"That was awesome!" He yelled in victory, and the others joined in.

Jenny's car hauled itself towards Steven's home where Pearl would be waiting for them. Ron had put the gem in a small safe, so that if it tried to regenerate it would just be crushed by its mass. Sadie nudged Lars's arm getting his attention.

"Hey, Thanks for the save, man," She said with a slight blush. Lars was caught off guard by this.

"Well you know, you did the same for me," He said with a more prominent blush.

"I think I can get used to this," Buck murmured to himself.


	3. Limitations

Disclaimer: I don't own Steven Universe

(A/N: Hello, it brings me great pleasure to bring you all my third installment of Young and Fearless. You guys seem to like this a lot more than I thought people would. I've already hit over 100 views and four followers. Thank you all for this, and don't forget to follow, review, and recommend this to your friends. Let's dive right in.

Dante Watterson: Thanks

Demo-nisshu: Thank you. Ask and ye shall receive.

Pegalover: Because Ronaldo is always watching and Dewy has connections.)

 **Chapter 3: limitations**

Sadie waved goodbye to her friends as they drove away. The night before had been strenuous to say the least. She turned and walked up her drive way to her front door before her phone buzzed. The blond pulled her phone out of her pocket and read the e-mail that she had just received. It was nothing important; just the big donut acknowledging her resignation. She put her phone back in her pocket and staggered through the door in an almost delirious state, as she had been up for around twenty two and a half hours. She let her weight fall onto her bed as if she could not stand by her own power anymore. When her cheek touched the pillow she was shocked awake by a stinging pain. She put a hand to her face and felt the same shock.

"I must have gotten nicked by that thing's claws at some point," She said drowsily before resolving to lie on the other side and fell asleep.

It was now two in the afternoon and Sour was in his garage tinkering with what appeared to be a short PVC pipe with two nails sticking out and bent into hooks. He was working a fuse through a hole that he drilled into the cap.

'Now that we're fighting monsters like this we can't just charge headfirst with our weapons swinging. We have to improvise.' He sent the pipe bomb on the work bench, and admired his handiwork. He saw something out the corner of his eye and wiped around in his chair in response. Low and behold his half-brother, Onion.

"Onion!" He snatched the bomb off the table and hid it behind his back. "Hey, buddy what's up?" He said nervously. Onion simply held out his hand and made the "hand it over motion". Sour let out a sigh, and pulled out his wallet. "I don't want to hear anything about this, alright," The small boy of undecipherable age just nodded as he took the twenty dollars offered by his brother and walked off. Sour slumped in his chair, running his fingers through his hair in frustration.

Ronaldo sat at his computer that Dewy had set up at the lighthouse which was now his new office. He had his blog page up on. He stared at the home page with pride and sorrow; with a sequence of key a smaller window opened on top of the blog. The smaller window said _deleting_ on it and the bar under the one word quickly filled to %100. The page went blank, and Ron could feel a single tear slip from the corner of his left eye.

"I just can't take the risk; not anymore. It's time to get serious about this, "He said solemnly. Just then Then Sadie came up and opened the stair door.

"C'mon Ronaldo, it's time to go," She called to the blond man as he turned his monitor off.

"Let's roll!" He said with enthusiasm. 'I don't need to try and make conspiracies anymore; I'm living one.' He jumped into Jenny's car, and they drove off. Driving through an area of thick trees on back road Lars spotted one of them fall, and told Jenny to pull over. Once on side of the road a gem beast burst through the tree line. It had four muscular arms, the face of an oni, an out of place white gem on his foremost upper right arm, and had to be at least fifteen feet tall. It dragged its knuckles on the ground as it walked. It let out a fearsome roar and for that moment the teens lost their courage. Jenny slammed on her gas and drove forward. The monster seemed to be following them

"A behemoth with extraordinary strength and four arms and a face resembling a demon tormentor; codename Abaddon," He said.

"How are we supposed to fight something that big!?"Jenny made a sharp turn so that Abaddon's face was close to the vehicle. She pulled the large red canister off her hip and pulled the trigger, releasing it contains in the monster's eyes and open mouth. The creature reeled back and used one set on hands to try to lessen the pain while the other set flailed wildly. Jenny stopped the car and got out as she prepared for battle, with the others following suit.

"What was in that?" Sour asked as he prepared his new weapon.

"Some bear mace I found in my garage," Sadie sprinted forward with her spear primed. She leaped at Abaddon and her spear found a place in its flesh. He let out a wrath filled roar as se gripped her spear to stay on. She then took her knife out and stabbed it into its back as well.

"I have a plan!" Sour shouted "Lars I need you to distract it! The rest of us need to get on its knees!" He shouted. Abaddon finally gained enough sense to reach behind him and grabbed Sadie. It held it in front of its face as she struggled to free herself. Suddenly, as fast as if it were a flash of lightning an arrow pierced its cornea and blinded it.

"Put her down you bastard!" He yelled with all of the conviction and determination in the world. Now seeing a more infuriating target Abaddon tossed Sadie to the side with a pained groan from her. It slammed its fist at the slim teen, which dodged out of the way leaving the ground to take hit for him. In a split second he loaded another arrow and shot out its other eye. Ron and Buck jumped as high as they could off the hood of Jenny's car and swung their respective blades at the tendons in the back of Abaddon's knees, severing them in a instant. With this it lost its use of its legs and had to rely on its arms for support. Sour lit the fuse of his pipe bomb, and with the beast's lower half now on the ground he jumped up onto the spear and knife handle still in Abaddon's back and leaped off of them. He swung his right arm down, jamming the bets nails into the back of its neck before falling back to the ground. With a final roar from Abaddon the fuse reached its limits and exploded in a plume of fire. The white gem fell to the ground with a clink, and team yaf fell to their collective knees, letting the deadly tension flow out of their muscles. A moment later Ron rose to his feet to collect the gem. Lars did the same and walked over to Sadie, and held out his hand.

"Are you hurt?" Lars asked.

"No I'm fine I just landed on my leg," She replied while taking his hand. He pulled her up to which she winced.

"Can you walk?"

"Yeah I'm just sore is all," He helped her to the car, and she sat down. Meanwhile Jenny was absolutely ecstatic.

"Oh my God Sour that was amazing!" She chimed with a kick in her voice that Sour believed to be irreplaceable. He looked away slightly with his right hand behind his head and a slight blush across his cheeks.

"It was nothing," he said modestly, torn between enjoying her praise and not being able to hide the symptoms of said praise. "I couldn't have done it without, Buck and Ron anyway-"He was cut off by a seven foot tall monster slamming into the pavement.

(A/N: And so the plot begins. The next chapter is when the story is really going to bloom. Join in next time for the next installment of Young and Fearless. Don't forget to review and follow.)


	4. Of Devils And Demons

Disclaimer: I don't own Steven Universe

(A/N: And with this chapter the plot truly begins. I hope you all enjoy the concept. Talk to you guys later.)

Dante Watterson: Thank you .

 **Chapter 4: Of demons and devils**

"You know…you really ought to know your limitations," A deep raspy voice laced with benevolent intent echoed from the crater left by the creature's entrance. It stood tall at 7 feet, had a gray skin tone that could be associated with death, a long tail that split into two about half way down, black antlers sprouting from the top of its exposed skull, which was the only part of its body that wasn't covered in flesh, and a skull in a similar shape as a horse's would be. The sight of this deathly creature frightened the teens, but they had forced their way through such fear before. "I honestly didn't expect to find a bunch of humans, and younglings none the less. I would've sooner thought that it would've been those meddlesome crystal gems," The beastly creature said with a battle ready look. The team stayed still with anticipation. They didn't quite know what to make of their current situation. This thing was obviously smart and could strategize; this would end up being a scale tipping factor later on. "Honestly when I heard that you were capturing my pawns I thought that my hearing had left me for good. Look I'm not ready to draw attention to myself just yet, and I'm sure that the result of your parents finding your lifeless and mangled corpses at their front doors would have the opposite of the desired effect. So I'm going to offer you the chance to run away and if you're not crazy you'll take that opportunity." Sour clutched his blade tightly in his hand.

"Not crazy; fearless!" he cried as he swung the blade at the intelligent gem beast from behind. It side stepped and caught Sour's arm in an effortless grip that felt like it was about to snap his forearm in half. He let out a pained scream as he dropped his machete into his left hand, and swings it at its arm. The blade bounced back as if it had just been slammed against a sheet of steel. It looked down at its prey with empty sockets; the gaze made Sour feel like he couldn't move. He was more scared in that moment than he had ever been in his entire life. The gaze was broken by Sadie who had lunged at the creature with her spear in hand. The tip of the spear connected with the creature's chest plate mid-air, and the weight was sufficient enough to knock it back and let go of Sours arm. This attack was coordinated proof of which being that Buck was standing behind the creature waiting for Sadie to catch him off guard; while it fell backwards Buck swung his axe straight at the back of its neck. It connected but scraped along until reach its right antler which was sliced clean off, but did no damage to the head. Once it regained its balance it through Sadie away from itself, and turned to face the whelp who had just dared to disfigure him. Buck swung again, this time with the creature catching it in mid-swing and ripping the axe from the teen's hand. Buck attempted to back up before the gem beast swung the handle into his side, which sent him flying into the side of Jenny's car. He shifted slightly but could not move of his own volition, he felt as if he could not breathe, or that he was being drowned and lit on fire at the same time.

"A creature that has retained its intelligence and relies on this to recruit pawns and strategize against its opponent codename: Jersey Devil," Ron spoke aloud, drawing Jersey's attention. He stared the armed teen down, and let out a dark chuckle.

"Hahahaha, you know what? I like the sound of that name, but you've got one thing wrong. **I don't rely on anybody!** " Jersey said in a completely different voice that sounded like an incarnation of hell itself as it charged Ron with murderous intent. Ron braised himself and took the stance that all of the samurai from his anime does. Jersey raided its clawed hands only to be stopped a mere two feet away from Ron by the sensation of cold steel restraining it by the neck.

"Run away, Ron!" Jenny shouted from behind Jersey. It grasped the chain against its neck and pulled as hard as it could, sending Jenny flying through the air, and slamming her against its back. She tried to gather herself off the ground, but could not do so before Jersey spun around and kicked her away. She didn't move after that, just lie there and hold her ribs. Jersey looked to Lars who had three arrows aimed at its head; he took in a deep breath. Lars released the arrows, which sliced through the air until Jersey let out a horrible screech that sounded like a cross between radio static and whale song. The sound waves traveled in a straight path, knocking the arrows out of the air and then hitting Lars. First he fell to his knees and held his hears, then as the attack continued blood seeped from the corners of his eyes and out from under his palms until he finally passed out. With its attention on someone else Ron took the opportunity to jump up and hang from the handle and back of the blade on his katana; usually this would have the effect of a dull guillotine; messy but still effective, though in this case the legendary blade did nothing. Jersey reached behind its back and held Ron in front of him by the neck.

"And tell me puny human, what trick do you have up your sleeve?" it spoke in a sultry voice. Ron ran his hand along his belt desperately trying to find the right object. Finally he pulled out a knife with a black stone blade and a rough material for a handle. He reached up and stabbed Jersey in its right shoulder, unlike all attacks before it this one penetrated deep into his flesh, causing it to reel back in horrific pain. Jersey dropped Ron and scrambled to take the knife out of him, every second it was in him felt like he was being stabbed again. He held the knife in front of its face. "What manner of weapon is this?" The horrifying beast asked out loud more to itself than Ron.

"A black obsidian blade with a coral handle. A weapon said to be the only thing capable of SLAYING DEMONS LIKE YOU!" He shouted passionately before spitting out a little blood. Jersey scowled at the human, and threw the knife right into his left thigh. He let out a pained shriek.

"No matter, you're all incapacitated and are unable to fight off the inevitable any longer," It picked Sadie up by the throat. "I think that I'll finish you off first," Sadie was unconscious and could put up no struggle.

"NO, SADIEEE!" Ronaldo cried out in hopes of a miracle. Jersey pulled his free hand back, readying it for a quick execution. At the last second a horrible burning on his full hand caused him to drop the blond girl. It cradled his hand and looked up to see the sun's light almost upon him.

"Tsk, daybreak. It seems as though I must leave you for now. Have fun with the rest of your day," He said mockingly and full of venom before jumping out of sight just as easily as it jumped into sight. Ronaldo took a moment to compose himself. Everyone was unconscious, everyone was injured, there's a gem beast about to reform, and there's no way that people aren't going to ask why there's a giant hole in the road; nothing he couldn't handle.

(A/N: I poured my heart out in this chapter. You would not believe how good this is for me. Please review and follow. See you next time! Peace )


	5. Neither Crutch Nor Caine

Disclaimer: I don't own Steven Universe

(A/N: There is not much to say so I am going to get right into the story! Enjoy! )

Dante Watterson: Thank you I look forward to your continued patronage.

 **Chapter 5: Neither Crutch nor Caine**

The sun shined brightly in Ronaldo's eyes as he drove down the road to Steven's house at twice the speed limit. The others were still passed out in the seats of Jenny's car. No matter what, the pointless endeavor that he and his friends had just experienced replayed in his head over and over again; especially the horror that he felt when he saw Lars bleed rivers from his ears and eyes. At the time of the attack, Ronaldo thought that Lars was dead. He couldn't thank god enough when he found out that he was wrong. The tires slid on the white sand as Ronaldo slammed on the brakes in front of Steven's place.

"Steven, help!" Ron called out as he dragged Lars out of the car. With a sonic blast like the one he took, he might even have brain damage. Steven popped his head out of his screen door in the time to see that Ronaldo was limping his way up the steps.

"Lars, Ronaldo, what happened to you guys?!" Steven panicked once he saw the dried blood on the two teenage boys.

"Please, heal him. I don't know how much time he has left," Ron said as before finally collapsing onto the wood. His face was pale and his breathing was strained 'I think that bastard hit an artery,' he thought before passing out.

He woke with a start and immediately jumped up on his feet and newly healed leg. He looked around to see everyone awake and well. 'Steven pulled through'. Lars stood in front of Sadie with a worried look on his face.

"Are you sure you're alright?" He asked as if it were the third time asking the same question.

"Yes Lars, you watched Steven heal me up yourself, I'm as fine as I possibly could be," She said reassuringly.

"No one's fine so long as there's still an active gem beast out there," Garnet spoke coldly as she and her companions exited the temple. Peridot scampered over to Buck and pointed to the axe that he had propped up on the arm of his chair.

"Is that a weapon?" She asked. Buck looked down at her blankly for a second.

"Yes," He answered flatly. Peridot leaped away and ran into the sanctuary of the bathroom. He then looked back up to the three women approaching him and his team.

"Tell us what happened?" Garnet requested while still standing.

"We were doing our rounds when we came across a corrupted gem. We beat it without too much of a problem," Sadie explained.

"Here you go," Ronaldo tossed Abaddon's gem to Pearl who immediately bubbled it.

"After that though, another one showed up. This one could talk," Sadie continued. The gems stood dumbstruck.

"You don't think?" Pearl asked while looking to Garnet.

"No, it couldn't be. Go on Sadie," Garnet replied in a stoic nature similar to Buck's.

"He said that the corrupted gems that we've been capturing were his pawns," Again Sadie was interrupted by Pearl who shot Garnet the same look.

"It can't be him," Garnet repeated, although this time she sounded more like she was trying to convince herself.

"No matter what we did nothing could hurt him," Sadie continued

"Except for this," Ron interrupted as he tossed the sheathed knife onto the table. Garnet and Pearl exchanged one more look before Garnet reluctantly grabbed the knife. Slowly she pulled the sheath from the blade and gazed blankly upon the black material of the cutting edge. Pearl let out a frightened gasp.

"Crud," Garnet said blandly after a short period of silence.

"What is it? You guys keep on saying really vague things, it's like you're trying to leave me out!" Amethyst stated irritably. None of the others were going to address this yet, but they agreed.

"Obsidian's back," Pearl whimpered with fear in her voice. Amethyst was struck with equal fear at the mention of that name. She had never come face to face with this supposed monster of a gem, but she had heard stories from Rose.

"Who?" Steven asked curiously only because one of the other human's couldn't answer first. Garnet took a deep breath and let it out. It's a good thing that everyone was here, even Connie; that way she wouldn't have to explain this more than once.

"A long time ago at the very end of the war there was a soldier named Obsidian. He was one of the strongest that home world had to offer. Obsidian was always a wildcard he sought out power and riches, unlike the other gems who simply fought because they were told to. He destroyed all in his path and never left anything other than ash behind, and because of this he was often referred to as Obsidian the brimstone. He took everything we had; countless control points and even more soldier were lost in the twenty-four hours that he was on earth than in the first eight years of war. Through a miracle he became corrupted and weakened enough to become a more manageable threat. Though by a significant amount, his mastery of caine the source of his amazing power still allowed him to pull through his corruption and keep his intelligence. It was then that Rose, Pearl, a gem named Lolite, and I took him head on in an all or nothing battle, which we were just lucky enough to win. Once he was defeated, Rose went against the judgment of her advisors and decided to use it as the power source for her yet to be constructed shrine, rather than breaking him. He was nearly impossible to defeat the first time and now it seems that he's back," Garnet explained all in one breath which she was able to do through a lack of need for air. Connie cleared her throat before speaking.

"What's caine?" Connie asked confused. Pearl stepped forward.

"I'll take this one; I suppose that it's about time that I explained this. You see caine is a raw energy that all living beings possess, but very few have the ability to utilize. Through a specific set of training and disciplines one can unlock their caine and use it to preform feats that one would normally assume to be impossible," Pearl walked over to the couch and picked it up with one hand and three people still on it before putting it back down. "Gems have a natural affinity for caine and use it to summon their weapons and have superhuman strength. Once a high enough mastery of caine is achieved one can shake off attacks and avoid taking damage. On top of this the potency of caine magnifies the more the user's determination, resolve, or will power strengthens. Matter of fact, Connie I have been teaching you in caine the whole time," This evoked a completely justified wide eyed stare from the young swordfighter. "What you haven't wondered why you can weld effortlessly a sword that once used to take two people just to draw?" Pearl asked rhetorically. "Obsidian does have a few weaknesses; all corrupted gems have a weakness to the minerals that they represent, and caine can be fought with another person's caine. For instance if I struck Obsidian it would leave a wound, though probably wouldn't go deeper than three inches do to the fact that his caine is stronger than mine, on top of that he has a natural sensitivity to sunlight, if he is caught in it he will be in too much pain to move." Sadie rose from her seat and stood up straight.

"I want to learn," It could not be told whether she was requesting or demanding. A silence filled the room while Pearl contemplated the human's words. It was not long before Lars rose from his seat as well.

"Please, I would like to learn too," He requested softly. Ronaldo was the next to stand.

"Me too," He said excitedly. Buck peeled himself from his seat despite his fatigue.

"Me too," He said coldly, but with determination in his voice. Coincidently Sour and Jenny jumped up at the same time.

"Me too," They said. Pearl let out a sigh

"I suppose that the situation calls for it. Very well your training begins tomorrow. Come here after you've had your sleep, and will teach you what you need to protect yourselves from Obsidian."

(A/N: I know it was a slow chapter, but some exposition was required. Thanks you guys! See ya! )


	6. Trust

Disclaimer: I don't own Steven Universe

(A/N: Alright I'm at over four hundred views and have 13 reviews for six chapters, that's way better than my other story got at this point. Have fun reading! Also in the last chapter I forgot to add that he was weak to sunlight on Pearl's list even though I showed that he was in chapter four. I've changed it.)

Dante Watterson: Thank you.

Spiderwilliam13: Thank you, but you might be a bit surprised by the time you read this.

Adventuremaker 16: I'll see what I can do.

To Ivy p. Fazbear, Adventurmaker16, 8-bit naga, Billygroff, and madamex18(I think it was); thank you even though you don't leave review I know you're still reading, and that's all I ask for.)

 **Chapter 6: Trust**

The group of teens stepped out of Steven's front door and down the stairs. They had all finished their first training session with Pearl. Sour stopped in front of Jenny while the others went on to the car.

"Is something wrong, Sour?" Jenny asked in a concerned tone. Sour took in a deep breath before answering.

"Yeah, there's something I need to talk to you about. I've been putting it off for a long time, but after that incident with Jersey I realized that we don't all live forever. So before I lose my nerve I just need to say that I-"His deep voice was cut off by the Buck laying on the horn. Just like that his nerve was gone.

"Come on guys what's the hold up!" he yelled. Sour looked away as he put his hand behind his head.

"L-let's go; I'll talk to you about it later," He said as he walked to the car.

Buck sat at the dining room table with his head hidden in his arms. He wasn't entirely sure why he had chosen to crash in this specific spot, but he lacked the energy to move at the moment.

"Something wrong, son?" He lifted his eyes to his father who stood at the opposite end of the table.

"No, but I have a question for you," he responded drowsily though you could not tell through his stoic exterior.

"Shoot," Dewy said as he sat down at the table.

"Why did you get Ronaldo to bring me to the lighthouse?" Buck asked in a serious tone not that you could tell. Dewy straightened in his chair for a moment before relaxing once again. He had been expecting this question.

"Well, you see I needed someone with courage; someone with strength and integrity, which of course lead me right to you. You always do what you believed to be right, not caring about what those around you said. You spent your whole life marching to the beat of your own drum. The second that the idea popped into my head I knew that if anyone would be ready it would be you." He finished. Buck couldn't help, but trade his mild smile in for a huge one at these words.

"Thanks, dad," he said in his painfully unexpressive tone.

"No problem," Dewy said as he left the table.

A red skinned humoresque figure flew through the night sky with bat like wings and a ram's head. It dive bombed the team who all dodge just in time to avoid being dragged into the sky.

"A winged creature who relies on its high ground and keen senses to hunt; codename, Azazel!" Ronaldo called out to the rest of his team.

"I have a plan!" Sadie yelled out. "Buck wait over by that telephone pole, and try to get its attention! Lars, when it dives pin it to the pole like you did with Belial! Jenny, stand by and wait for my signal!" The team nodded and took their respective positions. Buck waved his arms at the creature from underneath the lamp post. Azazel dove in and landed, slashing in front of him as Buck barely escaped behind the pole. Lars released the string, and the bolt pierced through Azazel's left arm and into the pole. This slowed him down just enough for Sadie to go on with the rest of her plan. "Now!" She called to Jenny Who met her on the other side of the beast and tossed her the other end of the chain. With the culmination of steel links firmly wrapped around the beast's wings both women pulled as hard as they could which was a little more than it usually was as they could already feel their caine charge their muscles. A blood curdling crack and pained inhuman screech echoed throughout the night air. With its wings now unsalvageable and hanging loosely at its sides Azazel threw the teens away from it, and stood tall. Sour, Buck, and Ron all leaped at it with their blades raised; only to be swiped out of the sky. Jenny swung at it with her chain from the left while Sadie thrusted her spear at it from the right. Azazel caught the spear tip before it could hurt it, and took the hit from Jenny's chain. It shook of the hit and raised its claws to strike at the black haired girl while it threw Sadie to the side. Three arrows pierced its chest, which just barley elicited a reaction from it. Azazel sprinted towards Lars as it ripped the foreign objects from its flesh.

"Shit," Lars mumbled as he discarded his bow and drew out two arrows; one in each hand. "Time to do something badass," He said as if it were a prayer. He started running towards Azazel as well, and right when they met in the middle, Lars slid on his knees in between Azazel's legs and stabbed the arrows through the back of its knee caps. It fell on all fours, having lost the ability to walk and fly in the same fifteen minutes. Before it could react Buck swung his axe straight down through Azazel's skull, slicing its head in twine. Its corpse lay still for half a second before evaporating into smoke and leaving only a green gem behind. Lars gasped for breath on his hands and knees. "I can't believe that worked," he rasped out in between involuntary wheezes.

"Nice move," Sadie complimented while sitting down next to him. He blushed, but you couldn't tell through the red that came from his exertion.

"Thanks, it was no big deal. I got the idea from one of the Assassin's Creed trailers," Sadie giggled at this.

"Leave it to you to make something from a videogame work in real life," She said through the laughter. Lars couldn't help but laugh with her. Even though he had every reservation about taking this job, he now had a feeling that this would be the best summer ever.

It was daybreak and the slightest of lights shined through the blinds that covered every window in Lars' house. He shut the front door behind him and walked to the kitchen counter where he found a note.

 _Dear Lars, I'm at work. You know the drill._

"Yeah I know the drill, I've known the drill for close to six years why do you even bother leaving notes anymore," Lars talked to himself. A bad habit that he indulged in when he was home alone, which was all too often as far as he was concerned. He sat down on the couch and listened to the silence as it got louder and more high pitched until it was ringing in his ears, and with that he got up and practically ran out of the house.

(A/N: Sorry for any typos; my editor is out of town.)


	7. Alone?

Disclaimer: I don't own Steven Universe

(A/N: So, I've been realizing that I've been making most of this story fight scenes and not focusing enough on the more relaxed portions that I've been putting in. I plan to change this; I just have to focus a bit more. With that out of the way I would just like to take a moment say thank you to everyone, and since I keep on forgetting people I'm just going to list you all off right now. 8-bit naga, Dante Watterson, Ivy P. Fazbear, Madamex818 (sorry), NiteOwl18, Thebestgamer, and Denalik for being awesome readers. And to my 68 consistent readers thank you for staying with me for this long. Thank you all for twenty reviews and 500 views. Now without further ado I present to you Young and Fearless chapter 7.)

 **Chapter 7: Alone?**

Lars walked along the board walk with his hands stuffed into his pockets and his head tilted towards the ground. Once again he had been left alone and as badly as he wanted to, he could not bring himself to be tired. I suppose you could say that over the course of his life he had been alone for so many collective hours that he had grown sick of it, which explained why he was now desperately searching for a crowd somewhere on the beach. Out of the corner of his eye a head of golden hair pulled him out of his thoughts. He looked to his right and saw Sadie sitting on the sand, just enjoying the peaceful sway of the waves. Lars went over to her and sat down next to her, much to Sadie's momentary surprise.

"Oh, hey Lars," She chimed with a smile.

"Hey," he greeted while getting comfy on the white sand. "You can't sleep either?" he asked for the sake holding off the silence.

"Yeah, I guess I just have a lot on my mind," She said while staring back out to sea.

"About what?" he asked again. Sadie took some time to answer this question. She wasn't sure if now was the right time, but the fact that he had just appeared beside her while any normal person would be sleeping like it was their last chance to do so urged her to continue.

"About us, Lars," Sadie pulled her knees up against her chest before continuing. "Is there an us? D-do you want there to be an us?"

"Of course I do," Lars interjected.

"Oh yeah, then why is it that after everything we've done together, after everything that we've been through that it only ever takes the slightest disagreement to set us all the way back as if we just met for the first time again! Did I not spell it out clear enough!? Did that kiss on the island not do it for you?! Why is it that you always find some sort of excuse to not be with me?" While she started the statement with anger she ended it with sadness. Lars mumbled something to the side. "What?"

"Because I'm Scared, Sadie!" It was now his turn to shout. "Because you're the best friend that I've ever had, and I know that if you start dating me you'll find out what an awful person I am, Sadie! Look what happened after we kissed once! I ended up making something that you did for me blow up in your face! I made you feel like garbage, just to have you save my ass not one minute later! I'm selfish, I'm self-centered, I'm abrasive, I'm deceitful, and I know exactly how long it will take for me to ruin our relationship if we were together! Look at me, I never even apologized for that time on the island, did I?" Lars resolved to avoid all eye contact until he could find out for sure what her reaction would be to this situation. Sadie the scene that had played out before her sink in. She cleared her throat, desperately hoping that she wouldn't say the wrong thing. She gently laid her hand on top of his before speaking

"Lars, you're not a bad person. We've been friends for years; I know what kind of person you are. Sure you might be a bit inconsiderate and abrasive at times, but… It wasn't enough to stop me from falling in love with you," Lars was taken aback by this. He had never planned on hearing those words out loud. In one motion Lars quickly captured Sadie's lips with his just like the last time they kissed. Sadie's eyes widened before closing softly. They stayed there like that for a while. How long the kiss lasted could not be determined; it could've lasted five seconds, it could've lasted five days. Their lips parted for Lars to speak.

"Sadie, I promise I won't back out this time. I'll be with you through thick and thin. I love you too," He said in a sultry voice, with the blond girl wrapped up in his arms.

Colored strobe lights lit up the abandoned warehouse that the town had affectionately named the buzz house, because everything always happened here. A crowd of teenagers danced to the techno music that blasted through the speakers. Sour stood on his platform with all of his instruments, doing what he did best. Someday he would make a name for himself, like deadmaus and RZA. He looked out to the crowd with searching eyes. The rest of his team was out there somewhere; he had seen them come in. To his complete and utter shock he felt a pair of arms wrap around him from behind.

"Hey there, music man," A familiar voice spoke right into his ear to overpower the music.

"J-jenny, what are you doing?!" She just giggled.

"I just want to tell you before I lose my nerve. Heheh do you think I was born yesterday; what all could you have possibly said in that moment?" Sour looked at the ground with a dark blush across his face. Jenny turned him around and brought her face close to his. "What would you say if I told you that II liked you too?" Sour was more shocked by this than he probably should have been given the events leading up to it. His shocked and nervous expression only made Jenny giggle more before she jumped up and kissed him. In an instant his anxiety disappeared and he let his arms fall gently around Jenny's waist. They parted for air around a minute later.

"Wow," Was all he said before he looked to the audience and found that everyone in the place had been staring at him and Jenny. The crowd broke into cheers and whistles at the display of affection (what I assume would happen in real life). Sour cleared his throat as he took the mic. "Alright everybody looks like we've got time for one more song. This one's for all the lovers in the crowd," He put on a slow song. The naturally quiet song met with the loud speakers and evened out to a perfect volume. He once again turned to Jenny and held out his hand. The dark haired girl flat out ignored his hand and threw her arms right around his neck. Sour chuckled inwardly as he placed his hand on her waist just like before. With all the couples now on the dance floor and the singles leaning against the wall; gentle swinging and swaying filled the room.

The height difference between Lars and Sadie made dancing like this difficult, but neither of them paid this any mind. They simply enjoyed looking deep into each other's eyes while they moved to the soft rhythm of the music. Sadie let out a content sigh as she leaned her head onto Lars' chest, and he let his head rest on hers.

'Has he always been this warm?' Sadie couldn't help but ask herself. The tall boy found himself asking the same thing as they looked back into each other's eyes. Slowly they leant in and let their lips meet. This was different from the one on the beach and the one on the island; this kiss was slow, sweet, and passionate, and neither one of them had felt anything like it before. Looking at himself now, Lars could not think of why he had been so afraid of this.

(A/N: That's right a romance chapter. I promised you romance and I delivered. I know it's sort of convenient that both couple got together on the same day, but it's a story bro, cut me some slack. Also I never actually intended on this chapter happening I was just thinking about what I could do with how I ended the last chapter and this little beauty popped into my head. Also if this chapter was not to your liking then I'm sorry; this was the first time I've ever put something romantic online for an audience. See you next chapter and stay frosty.)


	8. Cold Nights and Twisted Minds

Disclaimer: I don't own Steven Universe

(A/N: Alright I'm gonna try and move the plot on a little bit this chapter. I made a timeline for the story, so I know what needs to happen; the question is how to go about it. On another note I was originally going to make the team get their strength from having gem shards implanted in them, raise your hand in the reviews if you wish that I had, but keep in mind that caine grants the user a personality specific power once a high enough level of mastery is achieved. Also I have now reached over 600 views with my last chapter getting 34 views by itself.

Dante Watterson: Thank you and cool

NiteOwl18: Thank you)

 **Chapter 8: Cold Nights and Twisted Minds**

It was right after the rave and the team was out on the road. Though this time they weren't doing their usual rounds; earlier in the day Mayor Dewy informed them of two murders at what was supposed to be an abandoned sanitarium. Yesterday afternoon two headless corpses of nineteen year old men were found leaned up against the gate posts of sleepy hollow mental asylum. Dewy had told them that he would keep the police out and to investigate do to the very real possibility that a corrupted gem or force fusion may be responsible, and even it did turn out to be another human they were to subdue his; a task that would be considered child's play for six young adults with basic knowledge of caine. The familiar jeep slowed to a halt at the gates of the asylum where everyone unloaded.

"It just had to be an asylum," Lars groaned out loud. At which point almost everybody present simultaneously said

"Tell me about it," (What I assume would happen in real life). Chalk outlines showed where the bodies had been leaned against the granite rectangles that kept the steel gates tethered. Sour fingered the zippo lighter in his pocket as he walked through the poorly lit halls of the long abandoned building, hoping that he would get the chance to use one of his bombs again. Jenny stayed close to him showing clear signs of fear; he couldn't help her much as he was also afraid of his surroundings. There was after all a reason that every horror game had at least one asylum level. Buck seemed indifferent to this situation; whether he was scared or not was anybody's guess. Lars and Sadie stayed close, and though Sadie was never easily scared I'm sure you can all guess who was. Ronaldo on the other hand seemed enthralled with the opportunity to closely examine a setting with legendary levels of paranormal activity. His heart dropped, but his excitement rose when he heard the lovely sound of a woman singing. The teens looked to each other with a mixture of fear and resolve, and each of them could feel their caine boost up as a result. The singing leads them to an intersection where four corridors converged. A woman stood with her back to the teens, she had black hair, a black dress with long sleeves, what appeared to be a bandage wrapped around her head, and a pale complexion.

"Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost but now I'm found, was blind but now I see." She sang smoothly as the team advanced on her from behind. Once right behind her Sadie was the first to act.

"Don't move," Sadie said with authority. The woman froze stiff at the sound of another voice. In the blink of an eye she was gone. They scanned the intersection for her but she neither hide nor hair. The same voice from before broke them away.

"Oh, the little human gang, I've been expecting you," The teens turned around to see the woman with her bandage covering her left eye and a shark like grin spread across her face. Again she disappeared and again the teens turned around, following the sound of her voice. "My master informs me that you have been rather troublesome, I've been sent to…take care of the problem." She said as she undid the bandages. The white cloth fell to the ground to reveal a dull gray gemstone imbedded in her left eye socket.

"An enchantress that uses the female form to draw suspicion away from her and deceive her prey; codename, Lilith," Ron said as he drew his blade. Lilith let out an amused chuckle at the designation.

"Call me whatever you like, it's not going to make your deaths come any less painfully," She waved her hands over her gem and a light cascaded over them and took shape in the form of wicked metal clawed gauntlets.

"Stay on guard, she's either really fast or can teleport!" Sadie yelled to her teammates while charging at the gem, and thrusting her spear at her. Lilith disappeared and reappeared while standing right on top of Sadie's outstretched spear. With a grin she kicked the team's leader in the face and sent her towards a wall. From there Ronaldo charged in and swung down diagonally. When the swing was complete Lilth wasn't there anymore. He felt a tapping on his shoulder and without a millisecond of hesitation he swung horizontally around himself and missed again this time she was falling from the air. His reflexes were always sharp and as such he adjusted for her to land on the blade. Lilith's face turned to one of fear. In mid fall Ron noticed some warping around Lilith's figure, but she still fell in the same place; except for what should have been a gem cabob turned into a slice down her right cheek. She sprung up and raked her claws across his torso, and sent made him reel back a little. Ron's Kevlar vest took the hit for him and in one last effort threw his katana which sliced through the air like a saw blade. Again right before the blade her her he saw some warping and she instantly moved a little to the left, but not far enough to stop the blade from catching her side and releasing her blood on to her attire. Seeing her distraction Buck swung his axe at the curtain of black hair he saw before him. With no movement in between Lilith switched from facing away from him to holding the handle firmly in her left claw while her right claw reached out and sliced through his jacket, shirt, and stomach. He let out a pained yell as he let go of his weapon and clutched his injured belly. He fell backwards as she tossed the axe aside and wound up for a finishing blow. Sour blocked her path as he flung his machete about in panic; where ever he swung was where she wasn't as she constantly disappeared and reappeared just slightly to the left and right six times. Finally her attention was draw by Lars who shot three arrows at her, one of which pierced the correspondent area where Ron's sword had met her flesh. She turned to the orange skinned boy who showed the same face of fear that he had last night as Sour drug Buck out of the line of fire, leaving a worryingly thick trail of blood behind. With Lars in her sight she noticed a chain about to lash her across the back of the head. She focused and everything stopped. The chain now froze in mid swing and every object and person completely stationary; she walked to jenny counting aloud as she did so.

"One, two, three, four, five," She said in sync with her steps as she got to right in front of the short haired girl and readied her claws for the same strike hit Buck with her time ran out and the motion resumed. Jenny had been watching the fight closely and made plans for how she would react if the gem had appeared on any side of her, so the second she saw Lilith she gave her the hardest left hook she could muster, knocking the gem back slightly and pushing her claw out of reach. Jenny yanked her chain back and wound it once around Lilith before front kicking her into the air. Time froze again and Lilith freed herself from the chain and dropped to the ground before five seconds passed again and everything picked up again. Little did she know though that Jenny had reached for her knife at the exact moment that her foot connected with the gem and was now drawn. It didn't take a full second for her to aim and throw the knife into the juncture of Lilith's upper and fore arm. The arm went limp as the tendons were severed. As she calculated how long it would take for them to grow back she noticed Lars readying himself for another shot. She grunted in anger as she tore the knife from her arm and chucked it at the archer. He ducked, but still released the string sending it into her foot. Lilith didn't notice him shooting in the midst of his dodge and could do nothing to avoid the rail which stabbed through her foot and into the linoleum floor. With her movement sealed Sadie held her spear at its farthest end and swung it into Lilith's head like a baseball bat and sent her off the arrow and onto her knees as she tried to silence the dull droning in her head. Just then she felt to small sharp object stab into her back as Sour ran past to her and into the farthest corner of the room. She heard a quiet buzzing from behind her like a fuse ticking down…'SHIT!' She screamed inwardly as she froze time, and scrambled to take the bomb off. She struggled to reach the bomb right In between her shoulder blades, and by the time she took a running position time stated again and the bomb detonated since Sour had lit it from the middle of the fuse. The explosion launched her forward onto her knees and elbows and tore the clothes and a layer or four of skin off her back. She stood with great strain while taking ragged breathes and was met with a spray from a red canister. She quickly reeled back, shrieking shrilly as the acidic liquid burned her eye, and soaked into the lids of her gem eye. When in pain and panic she lunged at the first colored figure she saw, which happened to be Lars. She tackled him and dug her claws into the floor with Lars' arms in between two of them. He saw that the arrow from earlier was still inside her and immediately had a plan. He pushed his knee into the arrow causing excruciating. Fed up with this fight she released Lars' right hand to finish him with her claw. This gave Lars all the time he needed to retrieve a glass vile filled with a red substance and smash it onto her back. Now that the red powder had its moist catalyst (her raw skin) it burst into flames similar to that of magnesium. She got up and ran around franticly while the flames engulfed her figure. She sat still screaming like you expect a person on fire to do for a second until her gem dropped onto the floor. Though before the teens could do anything about it a shrouded figure seeming to be made up of nothing but tendrils swooped through and stole the gem from the floor.

"Lars, now!" Ron shouted. Lars pulled a specific arrow from his quiver, separated by a piece of scotch tape. Just before the tentacled monster turned the corner Lars shot the arrow. The lights were too dim to be sure if he had got a hit. Ron pulled a PDA out of his pocket. A red dot beeped as it constantly moved on the screen. "Ladies and gentlemen, we have lift off,".

(A/N: The longest chapter I ever wrote for anything. Sorry my editor is out of town AGAIN! I'm starting to think I may not have an editor at all. Please review and follow.)


	9. Sky High

Disclaimer: I don't own Steven universe.

(A/N: warning: I have changed the content in my previous chapter. I had forgotten a key plot point in the last paragraph; if you have not done so already please go back and reread. I will now be continuing from that point. I would like to thank you all for over 800 views. I'm fairly new at this and it never really occurred to me that anything I wrote would get this popular, as small as am sure this is in the grand scheme of things. Your views and advice always make my day.

Dante Waterson: thank you I appreciate your constant praise.

Niteowl18: thank you as well. I've taken much of my inspiration from the binding of Isaac if you've ever heard of it.

Story writer 2003: I will think about. There's a lot of character development be had here I'll be sure to take this into consideration.

Mika821: thank you for your support)

 **Chapter 9: Sky High**

The thick warm liquid pulled around his abdomen uncomfortably. He had heard the battle from his hiding spot, though he became woozier from the lack of blood to comprehend what was happening around him. After what felt like just a few minutes the rest of his team rushed over to him and knelt. Much to his surprise his friends seem to been pancake over his current condition.

"Buck, buddy hold on! We're gonna get you some help just hold on; keep your eyes open!" Sauer said in a panicked tone.

"Take his jacket off, use the sleeves tied around his wound it'll slow the bleeding down," Sadie said has she tried to prop Buck up. Lars helped her in this and took off his jacket to use for a bandage. With the already red fabric tied tightly around his stomach Ron and Sauer carried him through the halls of the sanitarium. Jenny fumbled with the keys to the car, trying desperately to get on the road. Finally she found the right one and jammed into the ignition. Buck sat in the middle seat in the back of the car, too woozy to worry about the blood ruining the upholstery. Sauer looked back at Ron from the passenger seat.

"Would you shoot that tentacle monster with?" He shouted over the wind rushing past the head. Ron looked up from Buck who he was sitting next to.

"I have Lars tag them with the tracking device that I hooked up to my PDA. It's time that we figure out a plan; we can't just keep on fighting these things blindly," Ron explained while trying to keep pressure on Bucks wounds. It was still pitch black outside when the car once again slid over the white sand in front of Steven's house. The sound of the carpooling up to his house was enough to alert Steven awake. With a familiar feeling of anticipation the young man rushed outside to find five of his friends carrying his sixth friend closer to his door. He knew then that he had his work cut out for them.

It was now 6:08 and the sun was just barely peeking out from the horizon. Buck sat on an armchair chugging on a bottle of orange juice while eyeing his new scars. While Stevens healing magic healed up the wounds, it cannot prevent the scars; not the book really minded. Just like before the gems walked in expecting an explanation for why they had come here again. No one on the team was sure that they would like the answer this time either. Pearl was the first speak.

"What happened?" She asked in a sort of irritable tone. Each member of the team knew what they had fought the night before, but none of them wanted to explain to the gems what it was. Sadie felt responsible and as such spoke first.

"I'm not quite certain, but I'm pretty sure that we fought another gem," she spoke softly not wanting to upset any of the other gems in the room.

"Well of course we're always fighting gems," Pearl said with clear anticipation her voice, hoping that there would be another sentence after that. Sadie wrung her hands together as she opened her mouth to speak a second time.

"No, I mean a gem like one of you." Garnet stepped forward.

"Describe her," she commanded softly and simply. Sadie thought hard about every detail of the gems she had fought; she did not want to miss a single tooth in her evil grin.

"She had black hair, white skin, black outfit, clawed gauntlets for weapons, she seemed to be able to teleport in a sense," by now the gems started exhibiting nervous behavior. Sadie took a deep breath as she knew she was about to hammer the final nail into the coffin. "And she had a gray gem in her left eye." Again Garnet and Pearl shared looks of terror where amethyst remained blissfully ignorant. Emphasis stood patiently, she knew that they were about to explain. Garnet let out a shaky sigh.

"The gem you just fought…was Lolite," everyone in the room was taken aback by this.

"But how is that even possible? Wasn't Lolite on your side?" Amethyst asked in a nervous tone.

"That's what I thought, I can't make complete sense of it right now, but for now it would seem as though she switch sides. Before the war was even over she sort of just disappeared; almost immediately after the battle with Obsidian," Garnet finished. Pearl pinched the brim of her nose.

"I didn't want to have to do this," she said this dejectedly. "But it would seem that I'm left with no choice," she started to walk away towards temple door. "Come back here around the usual time for training. I have to make preparations; come well rested," she disappeared into the physics defying space of the gem temple.

Around nine hours later at 3 o'clock in the afternoon the team found themselves assembled in front Steven's house. When they walked inside they are greeted with Steven, Connie, and Pearl as they usually were.

"Right on time; come on there's no time to waste," she led the group onto the or pad for they are brought to the album cover like scene of what looked like space and were dropped into the sky arena. Once there everyone present noticed something different various obstacles and stone blocks littered the field. "Today we are going to do something rather dangerous," this got everyone's attention. "I didn't want to have to do this, but the rise of new and powerful adversaries seems to have created a necessity for this procedure. You see I tried caine is different for each individual, and as such bends to one's personality. Once someone has reached a high enough mastery of their caine they are granted with a special power that pertains to that person's greatest strength. This power is referred to as a chikara," she points to Steven. "Take Steven for example. Though he himself hasn't trained and trained in caine at all. Though his mother had to an extensive degree, and as such he has inherited her chikara which is to heal, make a shield bubble, and you bring plants to life. So in Steven's case it only took minor training to unlock the muscle memory and in Rose's gem. None of you are ready to unlock your chikara yet, but we must try," she explained.

"How are we going to do that?" Connie asked.

"I'm going to attempt to fool your body into thinking that you have achieved a high enough level of caine to unlock your chikara by focusing my caine into your bodies. This is an extremely unorthodox manner of training; specifically because it is so dangerous. Once my caine is inside of you will be much more than you are used to; if you fail to take control of the caine rushing through your body... It will forcibly expel itself from you, leaving you in a damaged and catatonic state. The only reason I would even suggest this is because we have Steven here to heal you if something goes wrong. That said I cannot force you and anything you must use of your own volition," silence overtook the setting. Unsurprisingly Connie was the first one step forward.

"I'm ready," she said with deadly determination and conviction in her eyes. Steven put her hand gently on her shoulder.

"Are you sure?" He said concerned, as if she were about to play game of Russian roulette.

"Yes I'm sure, Steven the whole point of doing this was so that I could fight alongside you. If our enemies have gotten this strong than I need to do this so that I need to do this so that I can get even stronger,"

"Very well; do we have any other takers?" The rest of the team nodded, knowing what needed to be done, and not wanting to give up. "Good, join hands and form a circle," the deadly minors followed her commands; forming a circle with Pearl in the center. She took a deep breath and word. "Now let us begin,"

(A/N: Again sorry for another slow chapter. Sorry for the five day weight but it was around Christmas. You know had family over the works. I'm sorry if this chapters a bit off; over the holidays I've acquired Dragon NaturallySpeaking Home software for my computer. It turned speech into text so forgive me of the same is not cooperating Lee should we. Please let me know if there's anything that you liked in the reviews. As always you been a great audience good night.)


	10. My Greatest Stregth

Disclaimer: I don't own Steven Universe

(A/N: Okay o the speech recognition thing didn't work out so well. I don't know if you noticed but it perceived me saying panicked as pancake. I well be going back to fix those later. I think it's safe to say that I should stick to the good old keyboard from this point on.

Dante Waterson: thank you

niteowl18: yes they are

Tommiboy: thank you for your support

demo – nisshu jinketsu Duke: good, enjoy)

 **Chapter 10: My Greatest Strength**

Pearl let her eyelids fall gently as she focused all of her energy into one spot in her core. Feeling the condensed life force in her chest, she let it go. Her eyes were forced open glowing a bright shade of white, and she could feel it flow through her arms into those around her. The humans felt the great amount of energy overtake them, and exert a massive amount of pressure on their insides. To them it felt like their veins were about to explode, and this was coupled with the distinct feeling of intensified gravity. They had to use a massive amount of effort just to keeping themselves from falling. After only a few moments versus their eyes were forced open as well, and glowed the same shade of white as the energy inside them started to burn fiercely. Remembering what Pearl had warned them about they pulled themselves together and attempted to focus the energy within them. As their focus intensified, they felt the energy pool in their chests and rest there comfortably before gently flowing through the rest of their bodies like the warm blood in their veins. Pearl fell to her knees, panting and gasping for breath.

"That about does it." She said in between pained breaths. "Are you all alright?" She asked with high hopes. The humans inspected themselves, trying to find any sign of injury, but found nothing thankfully. They all nodded to the white gem on the floor. "Good," she said while pulling herself off the floor. The young heroes looked down to their weapons to find that they were different now. Sadie's Spear was now sharper than ever, and had flowing patterns engraved in the metal. She picked it up and to her surprise found that it weighed almost nothing now. Bucks axe now had a textured grip on two spots on the handle, and the blade was stripped of its red paint and shone pure silver with a Celtic life circle now engraved into the both sides of the face; like the last it felt practically weightless. Sour's machete had a black dragon carved along the flat of the blade, and a wicked saw pattern along the back of the blade with curved teeth, and like the one before it was almost weightless. Jenny's chain was now a permanent night shade black, and when she picked it up and imagined hitting something with it each link except for the ones she was holding onto sprouted half inch long spikes, which made her drop it in shock; so fast in fact that she almost didn't notice how little it weighed (you get the idea right they feel like they weigh less than they actually do when their user picks them up). Ron's katana shined blood red on the blade and had a cross shaped tsuba. The grip now was now white as parchment except for the parts that had kanji written in black ink along the fabric. Ron recognized them as the characters for strength, knowledge, and bravery repeated in that order. Lars looked at his bow which now had small blades along the arms, and a badass paint job with black and white. When he check on the compound wheels he noticed that they were supporting double the draw weight that they were before, and yet he could still pull the string back as if nothing had changed. Nothing had changed about Rose's sword.

"You may notice some differences in your weapons. This is because when you fight your caine flows through your weapons. When you unlock your chikara your caine changes, and so does your weapon. The presence of the this new caine alters them to make them much more efficient (like having them weigh less) and work in tandem with your chikara" The teens examined their new weapons in great detail, wanting to see what new perks they just got. "Now let's see your new powers," she said unhindered, having regained her breath.

"How do we do that?" Connie was the first to ask.

"Focus your caine into your center. Feel it, concentrate on the swirling energy inside of you. After that pretend that you're in a fight and it should show itself naturally," she said in an explanatory tone. "Connie, you already had the most training in caine, so it should've gone the smoothest for you. Why don't you go first," Connie stepped forward.

"If you say so," she faced one of the rocks, and followed Pearl's instructions. For a few moments nothing happened, and then Pearl stepped in.

"Don't push yourself too hard, just because the procedure was a success doesn't mean that your mastery of caine has gotten any higher. Using your chikara takes up a lot of your caine, and when it's gone you lose your strength and durability as well, so use it wisely –"Pearl was cut off when the boulder that Connie was facing suddenly lifted off the ground. Her eyes glowed a light blue color and the same color cascaded over her hands, leaving a translucent sheen of blue. The light faded and the rock dropped back to earth. The night and training turned around excitedly to face her teacher.

"Did you see that?! I moved with my mind!" She almost shouted with electrify excitement clear in her voice.

"Telekinesis, very impressive; your mind always has been your greatest strength. Who would like to try next?" Pearl asked while Steven and Connie celebrated on the sidelines. Buck raised his hand, and took Connie's place about ten feet in front of the boulder. He mimicked Connie's actions, and immediately felt caine rush through his arms and create a tingling sensation. Suddenly his axe gained its original weight and then some. Buck wasn't expecting this and as such let the axe drag him down as the blade imbedded itself into the ground. In that instant thin cracks followed by red light opened up all the way to under the boulder; at which point an eruption of red energy burst upward threw the giant rock. Buck stared at the ruble he created and stood up with only a slight smile.

"Cool," he said, stoic as ever. Pearl placed her right hand on her chin in contemplation.

"hmm, tectonic blasts. Interesting," she said not entirely sure of her own analysis.

"I guess you could say that I'm **ground breaker** ," Buck joked.

"Me next!" Jenny chimed a she playfully shoved Buck out of the way. She faced a new boulder as she focused her caine into her chest and suddenly felt invigorated, like her usual energy was magnified. Figuring that this must've been her cue she gave her chain an experimental lash. A sort of clear energy launched from the chain and pushed the 400 pound boulder back five feet. Whether the force was created by a manipulation of wind, gravity, or just sheer energy was impossible to determine. Pearl didn't know what to make of this one, so she said nothing.

"Okay my turn," Sour said stepping forward and taking Jenny's spot. He focused his caine and suddenly felt as if his whole body was vibrating. With this feeling achieved he imagine Jersey Devil right in front of him and launched his fist as if he were about to break its nose. The result of which was a constant stream of sonic waves that distorted the air like heat would. This did nothing to the solid rock, but Pearl recognized the tactical use of this particular chikara.

"Sonic blasts, a very useful chikara to have. Be careful though; a stray hit from one of your blasts could severely damage a human," Pearl explained. Sour nodded, having experienced sonic blasts did to Lars last week.

"Looks like I'm up," Ron said confidently. He stepped up to the plate (so to speak) and pulled his caine into his core while he chanted in his mind _please be laser eyes, please be laser eyes, please be laser eyes_. His mind got a little fuzzy and his hearing now felt like it was better than the day he was born.

 _I can't believe Jenny wore that skirt; she knows that it drives me crazy_. He heard in his head _wait a second. I didn't think that._ Then it hit him. "I have telepathy!" He cheered. It wasn't as cool of a power as he was hoping for, but he was too distracted by the fact that he was essentially a super hero now to be bummed out about it. With this Lars came up. He closed his eyes and breathed slowly, trying to put all of his concentration into focusing his caine. After a moment or so of this he felt this electric zapping on his skin and all around him. He opened his eyes to find exactly that. An electrified aura zapped along the surface of his skin.

"Electric aura hm, very interesting. Try shooting one of your arrows," She suggested. Lars suppressed the urge to panic brought on by the sight of his electrified skin and did as Pearl told him. When he drew his arrow the electricity swarmed around the bow and the arrow he had loaded. "This chikara will allow you to perform a sort of charge shot like mine does," He fired the arrow which cut through the air, leaving behind a trail of yellow sparks only to bounce off the solid rock. Then the rush of his new power wore off and he realized the reality of why this was his chikara.

 _My greatest strength is pushing people away_. Sadie came up to him with a smile on her face.

"Wow, Lars that's really cool," She chimed while beaming up at her boyfriend. Lars put on a fake smile and forced his feelings into a pit in his stomach.

"Thanks; I can't wait to see what yours is," Lars said while stepping out of the way. Sadie was now the center of attention with all eyes on her. She ignored this as she forced all of her caine into the center of her chest, and then without warning it exploded. The caine rushed to her arms and legs and she could feel her muscles involuntarily tensing. Her skin acquired a light red tint, and her eyes turned white. She felt empowered and almost euphoric with a large dose of adrenaline flowing through her body. Acting on complete instinct she charged at the boulder with abnormal speed, jumped into the air, and landed a punch before she hit the ground. The red tint disappeared and her eyes returned to normal. Everyone was taken aback by this completely unexpected power. She fell to her knees and caught her breath. I suppose you could say her greatest strength was strength.

(A/N: Endings are hard and it had to end somewhere. I'm sorry if this sucked, while I was typing this it just felt like it was dragging on and on. I hope it was more entertaining for you guys to read than it was for me to type.)


	11. A diamond in the rough

Disclaimer: I don't own Steven Universe

(A/N: My apologies to Fangirlbecky13 and NCam42 who I forgot to thank in earlier chapters. I always appreciate my readers, but I only know your name if review, favorite, or follow. That said I've hit over 1000 views! Thank you to my apx 100 consistent readers. Also there's going to be a new Steven universe on tonight yay! Last interruption this will be my last chapter for a month as I will be taking some time off to work on my other story. With that out of the way enjoy my newest installment of Young and Fearless.

Storywriter2003: Thankyou

Dante Watterson: Thankyou

Niteowl18: Thank you, and yes they did)

 **Chapter 11: A Diamond In The Rough**

After training the team gathered at the lighthouse with a new found feeling of euphoria and excitement, after all they had basically just become superheroes. Five figures gathered around Ronaldo's computer where the tech savvy teen typed rapidly. Turning away from the key board he pressed a few buttons on the PDA which he had plugged into the usb port on the console.

"And there we have it," he said triumphantly as a red dot lied completely still on a black map covered in a green grid.

"What is it?" Buck asked having been delusional during the (very typo ridden) explanation the night before.

"After Lilith or Lolite injured you, the rest of us finished the job. Upon destroying her physical form a gem beast codenamed Cthulu retrieved her gem before we could perform proper protocol,"

"You mean shove her in a rusty closet safe?" Sour asked sarcastically.

"Exactly, upon the beast's appearance Lars tagged it with a tracking device that I duct taped to one of his arrows. We had made this plan to find their base of operations."

"What now?" Sadie asked. At this Ron spun around in his chair.

"Ready for some solid snake business?" was his answer. Everyone present knew what he had in mind. Sadie contemplated this and weighed her options. On one hand this could be certain death on the other hand if they didn't figure out what Jersey's plan was they might not find out until it's too late. What were the odds that he would just keep on sending his pawns out one at a time until they were all gone? She knew the answer was zero.

 _This is bigger than us._ She thought to herself. "Okay," She said, still not sure of herself. "But we'll need a plan. This will have to be strictly a recon mission. There's no way we're making it out of three hundred vs. six fights. We get in, stay in the shadows, and see what we can find and what you can hear," She said while pointing to Ron. "If one of those things finds us it's going to make a lot of noise. We're going to need a quick and quiet way to take them out." She said with a finger with a finger on her chin.

"On it," Buck said as he held his phone up to his ear, and walked to the other side of the room.

"If Jersey has a base where he pulls all of his pawns in during the day than its most likely a temple. We're going to need a way in,"

"I have an idea for that; I'll be right back" Ron got up from his chair and headed towards the exit.

"Last thing we're going to need is black close to blend in,"

"We're on the case!" Jenny chimed excitedly as she dragged Sour by the hand out the door.

"Anything else?" Lars asked with the intentions of leaving. Sadie stepped closer, looking into the much taller boy's eyes.

"Nope," She said softly while leaning in for a kiss. Lars' darted around for a second which went unnoticed by Sadie do to her eyes already being closed. Before it was too late her leaned down and met her lips with his. This kiss was awkward, distant, and lacked the passion that Lars had displayed previously. Sadie noticed this and broke away.

"Is there something wrong, Lars?" Sadie asked, worried that she might've done something wrong.

 _Well, Lars you knew this was coming. You might as well be up front about it._ He took in a deep breath "Sadie, earlier today I got my chikara, a field of lightning that surrounds my skin," Sadie nodded, unsure of where this was going. "Pearl said that our chikara is our greatest strength, my shield isn't like Steven's; it doesn't cover you in the rain and you can't fit another person in it. You can only use it to keep people from touching you, or hurting them when they do, so…doesn't that mean that my greatest strength is pushing people away?" Sadie put a comforting hand on his upper arm. "I know I said that I wouldn't back out of this and I'm not going to, but-"He was interrupted by Sadie who threw herself on top of him. They both landed on the couch with Lars back on the couch and Sadie's stomach on Lars. He blushed at the close proximity before Sadie tightly wrapped her arms around him. There was a brief moment of silence.

"Lars?" Sadie said in a soft tone.

"Yeah," He replied in a similar volume.

"I don't believe a single word of what you just said," This was not what the orange skinned boy had been expecting. "Sure you could take your power as you pushing people away, but it could just as easily be a sign that you stuck a fork in an electrical outlet as a kid" She stared down directly into his eyes. "Even if you're right about that I'll just keep on forcing my way back in, seemed to work just fine before," she practically whispered as she lowered her lips to her boyfriend's for a second try at that kiss. As her soft lips met his slightly chapped ones he felt his muscles relax, his anxiety vanish, and gentle warmth spread over his body. He kissed back and wrapped his arms around her as she had done to him, and though you could not tell, he was smiling.

It was 11:30pm at the light house where the team had recently regrouped. Sour and Jenny showed up with white paper bags.

"Here are the clothes," Sour said as he and Jenny started handing them out. They had bought them with the company card that Dewy had given them. "Sorry if they're too small or too big, we weren't sure on some of your sizes so there was a bunch of guess work to be done.

"Thanks guys," Sadie chimed as she took her set of pitch black clothes. "Ronaldo, what did you find in terms of a key?" The blonde male reached into his rucksack and pulled out a small pyramid with a familiar white gem sticking out of the side.

"I've got Abaddon's gem here in some sort of containment device. When we hold it up to the door it should open for us," he responded.

"Great, Buck?-" she turned to see him watching the road leading to the light house, where a black van was following the pavement.

"Here he is," Buck said as the van backed up to the group of super humans. The van's ignition turned off and the slight sound of metal shuffling was followed by Dewy throwing the back doors to the van open.

"Nice night huh?" The mayor said as he hopped on to the ground.

"Did you find it?" Buck asked as his da pulled a large suitcase to the back of the van.

"I've got just the thing you're looking for," He said as he undid the latches and opened the case to reveal six pistols and twelve loaded magazines. With a gasp Ronaldo was in front of the case.

"These are Russian PSS silent pistols! There's only ever been four reported on U.S soil!" He gawked as he picked one up, letting his trigger finger fall on the trigger guard.

"Well I guess the count is ten now," He said as he drank in the team's impressed expressions.

"How did you get these!?" Ron asked in disbelief. Dewy rubbed his right arm and looked to his feet for a brief moment.

"I have some old connections, an old friend that helps me get things I need. Maybe you'll meet him one day," he laughed nervously before snapping to a serious state. "Now as an adult I feel it my responsibility to ask, do you know how to use these safely?" He knew Buck did and so did Ronaldo by the looks of it, but any he wasn't sure about any of the others. Jenny nodded as she reached for her gun, carefully avoiding pointing it at anybody in the process.

"My dad taught us how when he started keeping a pistol under the counter at the restaurant," Sour grabbed his and slammed the magazine into the opening at the bottom.

"Had a pellet gun once. Same rules don't point it at anybody, keep the safety on until you're ready to shoot, button on the side drops the mag.

"I think I've got the gist of it," Sadie said while being sure to mimic her friend's actions.

"I'm more comfortable with my bow anyways," Lars said while double checking the safety and sticking the barrel into his waist band as he had seen on TV.

"If everything's taken care of I guess I'll be on my way, happy hunting" Dewy said as he started to walk away leaving the van behind. Sadie tapped on Buck's shoulder.

"Buck, what is he doing?" she said quietly.

"Walking," He replied stating the obvious.

"I know that, why is her walking?"

"Because I asked for the van, I figured it would be an improvement over a yellow jeep." Sadie understood now.

"Good thinking," She said while walking off to change into her black sweatshirt and pants.

Once everyone had their stealth clothes on they loaded into the van and followed the map displayed on Ron's PDA to a wooded area where few treaded as was made apparent by a distinct lack of trails. They had to leave the van behind on the side of the road. And everyone walked as a group to the center of the giant culmination of trees. Once they were right on top of the red dot they noticed a rock formation in the exact shape of Jersey's head. The roof of his mouth made a cave where as sharp stalactites represented his teeth and hung from the ceiling.

"Guess this is the place," Sadie said as she stepped over a stalagmite and into the cave.

"Dude needs to check his ego," Sour commented as he did the same. At the back of the cave there was a stone door with gems of various cuts and colors decorated the door in an organized grid except for in the center where there was one gem and eight empty spaces surrounding it. This was assumed to be the Obsidian gem. Ron pulled the white gemstone out of his bag and the corresponding gem started glowing in the first quadrant of the door before it split open in a saw pattern. As usual the final wave of anxiety came over the young heroes before the silently slid under the lintel. The room right inside the door was large and bathed and an eerie red light that seemed to come from nowhere. At first glance the room appeared to be void of life which was a lucky break for team YAF because there was nothing to hide behind. The room was completely empty with the exception of a giant pitch black heart that suspended itself in the center of the room from two large black pillars.

"That's the temple's heart; Garnet said that it leads to every room. We should use it to get around; if it's anything the one in the other temple the veins will stick close the ceilings," Sadie said as she started towards the heart and leaped on top of it. Clinging to the vein she noticed two things, one that it felt similar to glass, and two that it was ice cold as if it had been long dead. She scaled the vein through the ceiling of the room and into a sort of ventilation system. Though she knew this couldn't have been the real purpose of these tunnels as the gems didn't breathe. After a few minutes of climbing straight up the sloping vein Sadie heard heavy footsteps through the small openings in the rock. She looked behind her to see Ron and whispered just loud enough so the he could hear her. "There are some guys outside; what are they thinking?" Ron closed his eyes to find an answer.

"They're just gem beasts, mindless drones. I can only hear the directive that Obsidian gave them. He said guard the door and make sure no one disturbs us," He said now opening his eyes.

"That means that we're near Obsidian," She looked ahead and saw an opening not far away. "Come on its just a little further," she whisper yelled as she kept moving forward. Such a feat would've been impossible before Pearl's training. The vein stretched the center of the ceiling where it split off into five slightly smaller veins that lead back into different tunnels. The ceiling in this room was extremely high up. One could compare it to that of a super market. There against the wall Jersey sat in a throne of gold with Lilith kneeling before him.

"I'm sorry, Obsidian. I underestimated them and as a result I was defeated. I have no excuse and take full responsibility," The enemy gem's voice echoed throughout the hall.

"I do not blame you, Lolite. Though your defeat was a surprise I now believe that to be a result of my judgment. They put up a decent fight before they even knew what caine was, and with it they will be a much more substantial obstacle. Are you sure they've learned how to harness their energy?" Lolite looked up and nodded.

"I could sense it in their movements. Their skill is below average but their numbers serve them well," Obsidian arose from his throne and knelt in front of the gray gem. He took her chin with his thumb and forefinger and lead her to look him in the eye.

"Lolite," He said in a sultry voice. The team could no longer hear them due to their softer tones.

"What are they thinking, Ron?" Lars asked with curiosity.

"You don't want to know," He whispered back while trying to shake the thoughts out of his head. "We should keep moving," He **strongly** urged his leader. Who complied and kept shimmying along the vein. As they did so Ron heard someone calling out to him. He saw no one around and took this as his telepathy working in the background. With this voice in mind he lead Sadie to the exit second from the left. Once they were surrounded by rock once more the vein turned into a straight shot down. The teens slid down the vein firemen's style. There seemed to be an opening at every floor on the way down, just large enough for Ron (the biggest of the group) to fit through. "Stop at the next opening," Ron continued to direct. Sadie didn't know where he was leading them, but he was the one who could read minds so she didn't question him. She slid to a stop as did the others and threw herself off the vein and through the opening into an empty hallway. Once the other five did the same Ron kept on leading them; as he got closer and the voice became clearer he realized one, that the voice sounded childish, and two, that it was in great pain. The action of crushing came to mind when he thought about it. They turned right at a fork and were met with two Abaddon sized monsters standing on either side of a bid wooden door. Once had three foot long sword like claws and green skin where the other had spikes jutting out from in between its scales. They quickly retreated before either beast could see them. They all hurriedly readied their pistols except for Lars who drew his bow and an arrow. They all nodded to one another before sprinting out from behind cover and letting loose. Two bullets immediately imbedded themselves in both monsters' skulls before one of Lars' charge shots destroyed the clawed monster. The teens noticed that when they pulled the trigger there was no muzzle flash of bang, only the click of the chamber releasing empty shells. Two more bullets penetrated the spiked monster only this time one of them missed and shattered its sternum. Just before it could roar for help Jenny leapt on top of it in between its shoulder blades. She wrapped her chain around its neck and sent the message to her weapon and with that the spikes dug into its jugulars and ended the fight.

Obsidian looked up from what he was occupying himself with, having felt a tingle in the back of his neck.

"What wrong, Obsidian?" Lolite said in a rather disappointed tone. The demonic looking creature stood up.

"Someone just destroyed two of my pawns," He said in an anger filled voice.

"So?" She asked not seeing the big deal.

"They were inside the temple!" He yelled as he sprinted out of his court room

They left the gems behind having nowhere to put them at the moment and resolved to simply do what needed to be done quickly.

"It's in here," Ron said as he approached the doors.

"What is it?" Sadie finally asked as Ron pushed the heavy doors open. There constantly surrounded in a shroud of white light and dust lied a round purple gem inside a tiny cage. It would appear that Jersey had the same idea as the team and used a small confinement to crush gems as they reformed; though this gem seemed to start reforming almost instantly.

"The one who was calling me," Ron answered.

"Quick, Buck get it open!" Sadie half yelled as she now realized how much pain this gem must be in. Buck rushed up the steel cage and lined up his axe carefully; if he missed he could accidently break the gem. With one strong swing Buck sliced the top half of the cages clean through. This time when the white light came it grew into a humanoid figure though something seemed a bit off about it. The figure fell to the ground on its hands and knees. When the light faded it was revealed that the gem they had saved was corrupted and had taken the form of an anthropomorphic wolf with gray fur protruding from under the hood that was attached to his clothing which resembled a gi except it was black with red trim and had a hood. The scared gem looked up to the six humans in front of him and smiled widely.

"Thank you," He spoke in the most tired voice that any of them had ever heard.

(A/N: Now this is the longest chapter I've ever written! 7 pages in word, and 3,225 words! Also this took a long time to type so sorry if by the end of it I got so tired of looking at it that it started sucking. Hoped you all enjoyed and don't hate me for leaving it off on a cliff hanger The Walking Dead does it all the time. Also excuse the suggestive themes between Jersey and Lilith it's important for later on.)


	12. Hungry Like A Wolf

Disclaimer: I don't own Steven Universe

(A/N: I'm back and raring to go. My other story has more or less died after the month that I took off to start writing this story, so I figured that I might as well return to my success and continue. Last time on Young and Fearless our heroes infiltrated the Obsidian temple with a mission to uncover the nature of Jersey Devil's diabolical plot. Instead what they found was a corrupted gem in the shape of an anthropomorphic wolf and perhaps a new friend.

Storywritter2003: thank you kindly.

Dante Watterson: Are you sure? OF COURSE YOU ARE!)

 **Chapter 12: Hungry like the Wolf**

The six humans looked down at the creature before them. He rested on his hands and knees as he breathed heavily as if he was too exhausted to do anything more. Ronaldo bent down and helped the creature to his feet.

"Thank you," He said again. His voice had not recovered at all since the last time he had thanked them.

"No problem," Ron responded. "Um…What were you doing in that cage?" He asked, wondering if he had made the right decision.

"I'll explain later; for now we just need to get out of here," He suggested as he walked through the door with a certain shakiness in his legs. He had about half a head on Sadie and spoke with a young smooth voice. When he saw the discarded gems on the floor an expression of pure unadulterated fear broke on his face. "Run!" He shouted to those behind him before running to the best of his ability. The team had been on high alert and ready to run anyway, so when the signal was given the booked it.

"Why are we running?!" Sour asked while running alongside the wolf like creature who seemed to be struggling to keep pace with himself.

"You destroyed two of his underlings! When his underlings are destroyed he senses it and knows where to find them! He knows that the guards he put outside my chamber are useless, so-!" Just then the all too familiar form of the king of corruption busted through the wall, sending rubble flying like bullets into the other side of the corridor. His empty gaze met with the group of running humans and one particularly crucial corrupted gem before he broke into a juggernaut like sprint. With the threat in sight and gaining on them they put every ounce of their determination into their sprinting and ran ahead. The wolf creature didn't speed up at all. Sadie slowed down and ran alongside him.

"Come on you have to run faster!" She yelled in panic.

"I can't; this is all I've got!" He said as he tripped over his own feet and recovered just in time to avoid a slash from Jersey's claws. Sadie looked behind her and saw the monster that had almost killed her friends and suck to destroy everything she loved. She looked ahead and took in a deep breath as her skin turned red and started steaming. She picked up the gem beside her and threw him over her shoulder before taking off ahead of her teammates. At the top of a stair case there was a path leading right and left. "Which way?" She asked in a strained voice. He looked up.

"Left!" He shouted just in time for her to turn. "Right, left, right, right, right, left," He guided his saviors through the temple. Many of the areas had gem beasts that the team had to dodge and weave around Just barley escaping the constant attacks from the creatures of various shapes, sizes, and strengths. Anything that was in Jersey's way was barreled through and often destroyed though not broken. Finally there was on giant staircase with the end just barley in sight. They ran up those steps two ledges at a time; by this point the humans were hyper ventilating and starting to slow down just the slightest amount. This was enough for Jersey to make a move; he reached out and grabbed the closest thing in front of his, which happened to be Lars. He caught Lars' fore arm on the back swing and used his superior strength to ensure his prey did not escape. Digging his claws deep into the flesh of the worthless whelp in his grip Jersey smiled internally in hopes that he may have the offenders in check mate. Once they realized that he had one of their own they would stop and gladly hand that little pup back over to him. The claws dug deeper until Lars could feel them scraping against the bones. He cried out like he never had before as this was the worst pain he had ever felt in his life; if he hadn't come in here on an empty stomach he would've thrown up. Even in the midst of the panic and pain he knew what had to do. As if on instinct he stiffened his index and middle finger and jammed them into Jersey's eye sockets. Whether there was anything inside them or not he honestly couldn't tell, nor did he care as he activated his aura. The electric current flowed through the monster as he cried out in pain for the first time in thousands of years. He retracted his fingers as Jersey fell to his knees and held his face; Lars swung himself up and launched himself off the monster's shoulder. The claws sliced all the way down his arm until they hit his wrist and he slipped out. With a metric ton of adrenaline flowing through his veins Lars kept running, temporarily numb to the pain. At the top of the stairs was the door that they had entered through. Ron pulled Abaddon's gem out of his ruck sack and held it up to the door. Everyone ran through and Jersey was at the top of the stairs still sprinting for all he was worth. Sadie pushed Ron away and dropped the corrupted gem she had brought with her, and just when the door closed she hit it with everything she had left. The distinct sound of two giant boulders smashing into each other at a couple hundred miles per hour echoed through the forest as spider web cracks spread across the door at the speed of light. Finally Sadie relaxed, letting the red tint fade from her skin. Everyone stood there for a moment to catch their breath and process what just happened. And then the adrenaline wore off, and Lars looked at his arm.

"Oh fuck!" He said before passing out. (Just try to tell me any of you would react differently.) Sadie looked at him and immediately saw his injury.

"Shit!" she yelled, dropping to her knees beside him. She examined his arm and saw that the vein in his wrist weren't cut _thank god_. He had a much better chance of living. Sour looked down and instantly whipped off his black shirt. Pulling as hard as he could he ripped the torso off and tied the sleeves tightly around the five **deep** straight cuts. Ron swung Lars up and put his on his back as he started to jog off to the van.

The black vehicle sped on the streets to Steven's place…again. What were they supposed to do; if they took him to an ER they would start asking questions, they would call his parents. Everything needed to stay under reps. Ron sat in the driver's seat, staring at the road with laser focus. Buck say in the passenger's seat, struggling to keep his eyes open as he shook his head periodically. Sour and Jenny sat in the back of the van leaning against driver's seat. Jenny curled up next to Sour as he adjusted himself to give his girlfriend a more comfy position. Lars laid flat on his back with sweat pouring down his unconscious face and blood slowly seeping out from under the make shift bandage. Sadie sat beside him holding his hand tightly. The corrupted gem sat against the wall opposite to Lars and Sadie, starring at the corner next to the back door. Sadie looked up from the damaged boy and at the creature that she and her team risked their lives to save.

"Are you alright?" She asked with genuine concern in her voice.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Is he going to be okay? "He asked in return. Sadie started to say yes before a scary thought popped into her head. It was a thought that she had had before, but never in this type of situation. She hung her head and let a tear flow down her cheek.

"I don't know," She answered honestly. She felt a gentle hand on her shoulder followed by two words that didn't belong.

"I'm sorry,"

(A/N: I feel like this chapter sucks, but I'm not sure. Sorry if it does, but I'm trying to get back on my feet after a long break. This chapter was dedicated to storywriter2003. Have fun!)


	13. The Best Laid Plans

Disclaimer: I don't own Steven Universe

(A/N: Back again everybody with a new message of love. No I'm not doing another romance chapter quite yet. It's a message of love to you guys! As of right now this story has topped over 1430 views and 41 reviews. This story has gotten more appreciation then my other story that has 27 more chapters. So thank you to the following: Dante Watterson, FanGirlBecky13, Ivy P. Fazbear, Junior VB, MadameX818, Mika821, NCam42, NiteOwl18, StoryWriter2003 , TheBestGamer , Tommiboy, cartoons22, Thisisstevenuniverse, and Denalik. This story isn't going anywhere. Fun fact I'm racing against nature here to get this chapter typed and uploaded before my power goes out! Wish me luck! Also sorry for the gap between chapters I really haven't been feeling writing lately.

Storywriter2003: You're welcome for some reason.

Dante Waterson: Thanks

 **Chapter 13: The Best Laid Plans**

The wolf creature; Lazarus as Ron had codenamed him sat on the corner seat of the couch with his back facing a wall. He felt more comfortable there for a reason that he couldn't quite understand or explain. Maybe it was because nobody could sneak up on him this way; it certainly wouldn't surprise him. A cold shiver ran up his spine when he thought about what would happen to him if Obsidian got his hands on him. He found himself shivering until a warm hand on his shoulder stopped him. He felt himself relax as he looked up through the top portion of his hood. Sadie smiled warmly at him and he smiled back before looking back down at his lap. He was grateful for his rescue and the comfort he was provided, but he wouldn't ease himself into the illusion that he was safe; he had looked into beast's eyes and saw what true pain was. Sadie turned her attention to Lars who rested peacefully on Steven's bed on top of the covers. Not only were the lacerations and profuse bleeding severe he had gone into shock. Unfortunately this had to be fixed by a saliva infused drink; something that Sadie would never say two words about after this. The wounds on his arm had an unexpected reaction to Steven's abilities; rather than mending themselves instantly they slowly grew and converged back into one piece of flesh. **Nobody** wanted to watch the living muscles and veins patch itself together so they avoided looking at him altogether. The gems and humans sat together in the living room with nothing but silence between them Peridot included. She had no reaction for this; she couldn't even begin to think of one. Garnet held a suspicious gaze on Lazarus; something felt…wrong. The timelines she saw with her future vision were distorted and unclear; more so they always ended when it felt like something important was about to happen. She was shaken when he met her gaze though she kept this suppressed. She just couldn't understand what was happening and looking into his scared sad eyes didn't help. He only held eye contact for a moment before looking back down at his lap.

"Is he okay?" He asked softly.

"He should be fine," Garnet started. "His wounds are healing and his condition is stable; he's going to be dizzy for a while but he'll be fine," Ron let out a sigh and hung his head.

"This was our only chance. We needed to find out what his plan was! We needed something to go off of! We can't just go back to what we were doing before; we needed to know his motives! We needed to be one step ahead of him! What do we do now?!" Ron stated gradually getting louder as he went on, shouting in frustration and fear. Something clicked in Lazarus' head as a smile of childish joy forced itself on his features.

"I might be able to help you with that," He spoke calmly. In an instant all eyes were on him. He took a deep breath knowing that the story he was about to tell would be a long one. "I woke up in a field of strawberries and a lot of weapons,"

"The battlefield," Pearl interjected. "You must have been in the gauntlet temple," She explained.

"I didn't recognize myself. I didn't know who I was, or where I was, or what I was going to do next. I must've walked until the sun disappeared and came back at least three times. And then I felt pain a lot of pain, before It all went black again when I woke up I was in the temple," He looked to Sadie who nodded before he continued. "There were a lot of others like me there. We were all kept in one room they were just stumbling around with no direction in mind. I don't know how long that went on for, but it felt like a long time. I always noticed this one woman with black hair and one eye watching over us through a window that was too high for us to reach and too small for any of the flying creatures to fit through. The number of creatures in that one giant room kept growing and growing; after a while the light turned red, the stones that made up the room began to chip and the window turned into a balcony where Obsidian stepped through. They follow him and do everything he says; I think it's because he's the strongest. Over time I got closer to them, I listened to them. I heard the woman say that she had escaped from a place called the sea spire or the moon spire or something like that," Steven's eyes widened in horror as he looked to the gems for a reaction.

"The lunar sea spire," Steven whispered as if that was all he could muster.

"And after that she tracked down Obsidian in a place called the rose shrine or something along those lines,"

"It's possible that she was powering the enhanced gravity device that surrounded the spire." Pearl thought aloud.

"They kept on talking about another temple. Obsidian said that there were thousands of soldiers there maybe even millions. And that after he got them he would be unstoppable and that he could rule the world." Coincidentally he just then noticed the door in the back of the room. "Oh," was all he had to say about that discovery. The eyes of humans and gems alike urged him to continue. "I pretended to be like the others for a long time. IO watched the door as he sent more and more of them out to test how well guarded the temple was and pinpointing its location over time. But one day when I got too close to the door and it opened right in front of him. He had not ordered me to do that and he knew that if I was under his control I wouldn't have done it. I didn't even try to it just happened," Garnet put a finger on her chin some things were starting to add up. "He grabbed me and looked closely at my gem and when he saw it he dispelled me, but I came back right away. I didn't stay in my gem for very long at all. Finally he just put me in that tiny cage so I wouldn't have enough room to regenerate," He told the final part of his story as he pulled back the left side of his gi to reveal a purple gem over his heart. Garnet's suspicions were finally confirmed.

"You are or were an Agate, a very rarely but easily made gem used as a sort of skeleton key. The reason they were very rarely made was because there was always such a high risk of the enemy getting their hands on them. I'm guessing that you're how he planned on getting into the temple," Silence fell on the room once again. Steven was the next to speak.

"This is all my fault,"

 _Galway, Ireland_

"Mysterious activity arises in a city half way across the world," A news reporter recited in a thick Irish accent. "Beach city, Delaware in the USA is a historically rich and often active city that has had a recent spike in inexplicable happenings some of which include giant holes in pavement, a straight line of pine trees that have been knocked off their stumps by sheer force, a violent random attack on livestock-"The reporter was cut off when the tv was flicked off. A shadowy figure sighed heavily.

"Those blades can't keep out of trouble for a couple of centuries," A gruff voice groaned (blade is Irish slang for girl).

ATTENTION: The Lazarus exposition scene sucked majorly. I tried it as a flash back, but it just didn't work. If any of you think you can I encourage you to write a better way of explaining everything that needs explaining. It doesn't have to be good to be better than mine. PM it to me if you write it.


	14. A One Way Ticket

Disclaimer: Steven Universe

(A/N: Hello again everybody. I didn't get any submissions for the exposition scene last chapter so I guess that means that it was better than I had thought at first. My story has now hit over 1600 views wooooo! God I love this story!

Dante Watterson: Thankyou

Storwriter2003: IKR Jk thank you)

 **Chapter 14: A One Way Ticket**

The next couple of days were bland, boring, and awkward. Lazarus as he preferred to be called stayed at the light house where he wasn't to leave until night fell, and even then he was to be careful. If anyone saw him Beach City would become the next Roswell. The team didn't need that kind of attention. Steven didn't take the news so well. He fell into a depression like none he had ever experienced before. It rivaled the feelings that he had felt after the ship crashed had multiplied tenfold. While before it was the possibility that he would hurt his loved ones he'd now faced the realization that he single handedly caused all of this out sheer carelessness.

Ron sat at his computer typing up a report for Sadie which he would then send to Dewy. With each mission the situation grew more dangerous and the stakes rose. Now the world as they knew it may be at stake. Lazarus sat up on the couch in the room.

"You know, you don't have to let me stay here. You and your friends aren't safe so long as I'm around," He said sadly. Ron didn't even look away from his monitor.

"It's better that we keep an eye on you. You stand between Obsidian and a monster army," he responded bluntly but not coldly. Lazarus looked away at nothing in particular.

"I never asked for any of this," He said sadly. At this Ron turned around.

"No one asked to be a part of this. When my friends and I decided to do this we thought we would be fighting mindless monsters that held no special powers, no intelligence, and no threat to humanity as a whole, but when we were faced with a challenge that was clearly out of our league none of even hesitated to step back out on that battlefield. In the end it's not about what you ask for, it's what you do that counts. I saw that look in your eyes while you were running from Obsidian," This caught Lazarus' attention, and he quickly became eager for Ron to finish that thought. "I saw fear, panic, but most of all I saw excitement and bravery. There's a lot of potential in you, Lazarus; when it comes down to it I have no doubt that you'll rise to the occasion," And with that Ron went back to typing. Lazarus smiled widely as he felt his resolve rise.

Dewy sat in his office with the curtains shut and the lights off.

"Yes I know, Charley. I'll get you those pistols back as soon as possible." Dewy said to the man on the other end of the phone as he skimmed over the reports that had been sent to him the night before. "They're doing quite well. There haven't been any casualties and the collateral damage is down from when the gems were taking care of things…Yes I saw the news report its fine. We're not the only place where stuff like that's happening; the whole world's going crazy…We've located the obsidian temple as well…yeah I'll talk to you later. Expect those guns back in a few weeks. Bye," He hung up and slumped in his chair. He let out a sigh "I need a vacation,"

"Allow me to help you with that," A cynical woman's voice came from seemingly nowhere. Dewy sat up in his chair and looked around franticly, but saw no one. "Whoever you were talking to, it doesn't matter there not going to be able to help you," Dewy cautiously freed the derringer that he kept taped the underside of his desk, and started for the exit. "Look at you, so scared so fragile," He heard the voice from right behind him and he whipped around with the safety off. "And so out of time," He heard once more before everything went black.

Sent to Jenny, Lars, Sadie, Sour Cream, and Ron at7:32 pm

Hey guys you haven't seen my dad driving around town have you? He's always home by now and he won't answer his phone. I'm really worried

No sorry

No

No, but have you seen Kiki? She went out to deposit the money we made today and she didn't come back. She won't answer her phone either and I'm scared.

No luck

You guys don't think it was him do you?

I hope not

What should we do?

How can I help?

I don't know. He is the mayor he may have just had something important to do, and his phone died. Don't worry about it for now.

8:07 pm

The cops are at my door my dad's dead

I'm coming

On my way

Coming

Can somebody pick me up?

I'll get you

(Sorry if the text scene looks jacked up. I don't get multi-person texts all that often)

Lars sped over to Buck's house on his motorcycle with Sadie clinging tightly to his back. They had been pulled over a little ways back, but once Lars showed the officer the text thread he was rushed back on his way. Lars leaned to the left and slammed the breaks so that he slid to a halt in Buck's driveway. (I don't own a motorcycle) The couple rushed into the house and immediately saw the stoic teen siting on the couch with his head in his hands. Jenny who was sitting to the right of Buck had her arms around him, and Sour who was sitting on the left had a comforting hand on his shoulder. Lars and Sadie sat on the coffee table in front of the couch. Buck a steady stream of tears coming out from under his glasses but he wasn't sobbing or making any noise at all for that matter. After a moment of silence Buck started laughing; succeeding in confusing everyone in the room.

"You know it finally sunk in," He said in between laughs as the tears intensified. "He had at least twenty more years on this planet and they're gone," He kept laughing bitterly as all of his friends looked away. This was the saddest thing they had ever seen. "My bitch of a mother leaves before I can even learn her name! My dad was the only one who cared for me, and even with that I spent most of my time pushing him away!" His laughs only got louder that wasn't a good sign. "He's gone, gone for good. DMANIT!" His laughing stopped in an instant and he began trembling, seething with a tragic rage. He got up and proceeded to punch a hole through his wall before falling to his knees and sobbing like any man would. By this point everyone eyes were pricked with tears. There was no escaping it; they were only human after all. Jenny's phone started ringing. Normally she would ignore it, but it was her father who knew why she was there so it must've been important. She brought the phone p to her ear with a shaky hand.

"Yeah," she answered simply with a crack in her voice. Her heart dropped in her chest when the first thing she heard was her father crying uncontrollably. "Dad what happened?!" Her face broke into an expression that would be associated with the sound of breaking glass. Without another word she hung up and dropped her phone. A solid two moments passed with Sour being too afraid of the answer to ask what was wrong. After those two moments Jenny lurched forward and vomited violently. Then the tears came, and she threw herself at Sour who buried her in his arms as she wailed in grieving. It wouldn't do much but it was all he could do at the time. Sadie took Lars hand as she to began to sob. Lars looked at her and squeezed he hand as he put his other arm around her. Ronaldo just stood there sadly while gritting his teeth. How had he not accounted for this? It was so obvious; those things, those monsters, those **demons** will pay.

(*sniffle* damn it why do I do this to myself! Hope you all enjoyed, but how could you.*sniffle* please don't send me any hate mail I feel cruddy enough.


	15. Before a Fall

Disclaimer: I don't own Steven universe

(A/N: Great response for the last chapter!...You bunch of sickos. JK, but seriously I love you guys. You're so responsive. I have now hit the 1750 view mark. Granted about two hundred of those are people who read the first chapter and decided they didn't like it, but I think I've earned the confidence. Last time on Young and Fearless our heroes faced rage, guilt and depression as the world as they knew it seemed to crumble around them. Ladies and gentlemen I give you chapter 15 of Young and Fearless.

Junior VB: Thanks

Storwriter2003: You're welcome?

Dante Watterson: Thank you)

 **Chapter 15: Before A Fall**

It's been one week since the tragic murder of Dewy and Kiki. The funerals were bright and sunny, but this did little to lighten the mood. Kiki lay in her plot where her parents would eventually follow, and Dewy's ashes had been sealed in an hour glass where he would be in eternal motion as per his will. The team except for Lars had gathered in the light house where they discussed their retaliation plans. Buck and Jenny found themselves all too able to set aside their grief with thoughts of vengeance running rampant through their minds.

"I saw his body before the cremation. He was covered in cuts and stabs in pairs of four. Each wound was equally spaced," Buck explained.

"And we know whose description that matches," Ron confirmed.

"Kiki looked the same," Jenny added glumly. "That means that the detectives will link them in the murder case," She finished.

"And from there it's only a matter of time before they find out that something's up," Sadie added contemplatively. "If he did this in retaliation to freeing Lazarus then what was stopping him from going further? What was ever stopping him?"

"It could be that he's afraid," Sour suggested. "He knows that at his army's current state it doesn't stand a chance against the world's military. As power hungry and arrogant as he is he knows that he isn't immortal. We and the gems are capable of beating him, and on top of that he knows that we know he's weak to weapons made from obsidian. Even his main fighting force is a legion of dangerous, but ultimately mindless beasts that untrained teenagers could beat. That's why he didn't want to draw attention to himself until he was sure he could win. Jersey's smart; he's fought and won wars we can't forget that," He finished. All the while Lazarus sat on the roof of the light house staring up into the moon. It was full, bright, and shone a blinding white. Something about it made him feel at home; it felt natural, and for a moment it even made him feel safe. The child like gem thought over what Ron had said to him a week ago and paired it with the events of the following days.

"Afraid or not I'm free. I won't let anyone take me back," He clutched his fist tightly. "And I won't let anyone hurt my friends again," His eyes glowed white as he felt himself resonate with the moon it gave him power, it gave him strength, it gave him solace.

Lars zoomed around the outskirts of town on his motorcycle with his bow and quiver on his back. He had resigned to patrol while the others figured out their next plan. He snapped his attention to the road ahead which seemed to be obstructed by a rather large gem beast that was trying to crush a car with the driver still inside. The beast was very tall and lanky. It had violet skin, a white mane, and two razor like claws sprouting from each of his wrist. Lars acted on instinct as he stood up on the foot rests, let go of the handle bars, and shot a charge shot right into the beast's face. The beast dropped the car to hold its face in pain. Lars quickly sat back down, and prepared for one of the craziest plans he ever had. Throwing his weight upward he jumped onto the car and used it to ramp into the beast's face. The beast fell with Lars on him and made the fall survivable for Lars who slid off the monster's face while still on two wheels like a badass.

 _Let's see codename;…Merrick. Why not?_ Lars thought trying to make light of the situation so he wouldn't notice that this was his first fight all alone. He loaded three more arrows onto the string of his bow and drew back. He released the bolts which embedded themselves in Merrick's back equally spaced and ready for their purpose. Merrick spun around and swung at Lars, but the lean teenager dodged out of the way and shot another arrow right into Merrick's right eye. This distracted the corrupted gem long enough for Lars to run around him and jump onto the first arrow that he had shot into its back then the next and the next one. Latching onto the white fur that made up Merrick's mane he focused his energy into his hands which were right over the gem's temples. The strong electrical current ran through the flesh medium and destroyed the gem's physical form, leaving Lars to fall harmlessly to the ground. He smiled and took off his helmet in celebration. Then he heard a shocked gasp from behind him. He whipped around to see the driver of the car. He had been too focused on the fight to recognize the black Lexus sedan. A man with similar skin, hair, and eyes, color with a buzz cut starred into his eyes.

"Lars?" the man asked as if it were a question.

"Alex, hey bro what you been up to?" Lars tried to play off what had just happened knowing full well that it wouldn't have any effect on his older brother and legal guardian.

"Wh-what are you doing here? What the hell was that thing?" The distraught older man asked. A feral screech echoed through the night and drew Lars' attention to the sky where he just vaguely made out the shapes of various winged creatures.

"I'll explain later, just drive!" Lars rushed as he got his helmet back on and started his motorcycle. Alex wasn't feeling particularly confident at the moment and followed Lars on his faster vehicle. In the light from his head lights Alex could see his little brother fighting off monsters the likes of which he had never seen before. He damn near had a heart attack when Lars emitted a yellow light to shake off a particularly ferocious looking monster that had grabbed onto his shoulder and almost ripped him off his bike. They raced up a cliff where they were met with the light of day and the sight of retreating monsters. Alex rushed out of his car and proceeded to ask the same questions he had earlier. Lars explained everything…well almost everything. Somethings were better kept a secret.

"So this is what you've been doing this entire time? This is crazy, Lars! What do you think mom and dad would've said about this?" Alex exclaimed, his sense of responsibility kicking in.

"I don't know why don't you tell me you knew them, longer," Lars muttered bitterly. Alex crossed his arms.

"Is that what this is about?" Alex almost hissed.

"That's what everything's ever about with you! They've been dead for half as long as I've been alive; why can't you just let go!?" Lars retorted.

"You ungrateful son of a bitch!" Alex snapped as he threw a punch.

"We're brothers you idiot!" Lars yelled back as he dodged and threw another punch. The fight went on for a minute with Lars holding back all of his caine and still winning. Lars knocked Alex on the ground and stood over him. "Damn it, Alex I'm actually trying to be something for once and all you can do is rant about how I should stop! Can't you let go just once?!" Lars yelled before freezing for an instant and walking away to sit on the edge of then cliff. Alex let his features soften as the correct course of action became apparent in his mind. He got up, brushed himself off, and sat next to his brother.

"So, the protector of the whole city?" He asked while looking straight ahead.

"Yep," Lars replied softly without looking at Alex.

"Just be careful alright?" he said with dejection but support. Lars relaxed and leaned back on his arms.

"Sure,"

(A/N: I wasn't sure about this chapter, but figured ah why not? Sorry if it sucks I was sort of distracted at the time. Let me know if it does and I'll see what I can do differently. Review and follow!)


	16. Charley's Demons

Disclaimer: I don't own Steven Universe

(A/N: Hello again everybody and duck for cover because Blitz Kraig is here! I have exciting news; the story has hit over 1,930 views and over 50 reviews! Hehe that rhymed. Just wanted to thank all you guys before we got into it. Also yes I changed my username; I always told myself that this would be the name I would use if I became a you tuber.

Storywriter2003: What about it?

Dante Watterson: Thankyou)

 **Chapter 16: Charley's Demons**

The sea breeze blew by and carried with it the all too nostalgic scent of the ocean. An outstandingly tall man with a red tint to his skin, a green tweed jacket, gray khaki pants, and his hair hidden by a flat cap stood on the main deck. It had been six days since his feet had been on land which is why his heart fluttered with excitement at how close the boat was to docking. They were in the bay and the staff was preparing to let the passengers off. A message came over the loud speakers. _Thank you for choosing Fast Crab sea way; we know you had a lot of choices which is why we're thankful you didn't take a plain._ The man took a step on to the plank and walked down to the dock. He looked upon the beach with fond memories.

"Boy this place sure has changed. It's good to be home," He said as he continued down the dock with a detailed map in his mind and a final destination in his heart.

Sour rode up to city hall on his ten speed as the message he received instructed. Oh god that message; it's like they were trying to tell him he was expendable. It was a Dictaphone with a man's voice on it; the voice was smooth and deep. The message was come to the mayor's office or else, and then it exploded. Luckily for him he was in his garage when it happened so it went unnoticed. He walked the familiar maze that was the executive building right to the office where he had met up with Buck so many times before. When he opened the door there was a broad-shouldered, business suited, African American man with sunglasses standing to the right of the desk. These sunglasses weren't normal; you could tell from them that he was in fact blind. His friends sat in front of the man in a row of padded chairs. The man looked up from his feet at the sound of the door creaking open.

"Ah, Sour Cream I presume. Please have a seat," He spoke with the same voice as the one on the message. Though not visibly, Sour was intimidated and didn't want to take his chances with the man; for all Sour knew he was a gem in disguise. He cautiously took a seat next to Jenny and leaned on his knees, more than ready to make a move if need be. "I do believe that's everyone; now we can begin," The man leaned over and opened a laptop without even having to feel for it first. The screen showed a black graph.

"Am I on, Kalvin?" A slightly sharper male voice came from the speakers of the laptop and bars of green light rose and fall on the graph with the man's voice.

"Yes sir," Kalvin replied.

"Good, alright kids I'm going to be forward with you. I would've preferred to have kept this under tighter reps, but Mr. Dewy's…expiration has forced my hand," Buck flinched slightly at the mention of his father's death. "The reason that the late mayor had hired you was because we had told him to. Ya see old Dewy was a member of Sidewinder; a secret society dedicated to protecting the country from the threats the government just can't know about. Almost everyone was calm, and only slightly surprised at this information; they had definitely heard crazier things…Almost. Meanwhile inside Ron's mind was crazy! "So here's how things are going to go. In a couple weeks Kalvin here will win the election, I'll be your new boss, there will be disguised agents planted throughout the city to make things are running smoothly, and you won't tell a living soul about any of this or we will find replacements," The man spoke casually and with a matter of fact tone. Ron sprung up from his seat, knocking it over in the process.

"No!" he yelled. "I have spent the better part of my life trying to expose people like you, and I've worked too hard to just fade in with you now!" Ronaldo finished while pointing to the lap top.

"Kalvin?"

"Yes sir," Kalvin grabbed Ronaldo's wrist and forced it around his own neck. He then proceeded pull Ron's other arm behind his back and kick him in the back of his knees so that he kneeled in front of the blind man. No matter how hard Ron Struggled to break free he found it impossible, even when using his caine. The rest of the team sprung up to aid their friend, but were stopped when he man spoke again.

"Kalvin I didn't say to attack him, I just wanted to make sure you were still here you were standing outside of the camera!" Kalvin quickly released Ron and stepped back into place.

"My apologies," He said in general, with no intentions of indicating whether he was speaking to Ron or the man on the computer.

"Look, kid there's no reason this has to be a bad thing. All of our goals are the same, we've been working together the entire time anyway, and if anything your job should be easier now. Let try to phrase this differently. Welcome to the team?" He said unsure of himself, but all present understood the message.

"Alright; I'll trust you, but don't make me regret it. I'm responsible for my team,"

"Conviction; I respect that. Have fun tonight, and seriously don't say anything about us. We **will** know if you do. Tootles," The screen went black for a moment and the team shot glances at each other before it turned back on. "Oh by the way the name's Charley nice to meet you," Then the screen went black again.

"You are free to go," Kalvin said. The teens rose from their seats and made their way out the same way they had come in. Ron still looked unhappy with the whole situation. The truth was no one was particularly happy with what was happening, but they all knew that there wasn't a single thing they could do to fight it. Besides they had much greater enemies to fight.

(A/N: I promise we're getting back into some of the action next chapter. I hope I'm providing a sufficient amount of mind fucks for ya, and I promise I'll be address the Steven situation soon. Everything will be coming together soon. Thank you all for watching this; this is Blitz Kraig telling you to keep calm and carry on!)


	17. the Girls Back Home

Disclaimer: I don't own Steven Universe

(A/N: Hello everybody I'm back! Sorry for the delay, I took a break and then worked on my other stories which unfortunately pushed you guys to the back of the line. If any of you are interested in my new story it's called Dust in the Wind for Undertale. It's an action story a lot like this one, but I worked out some of the more prominent kinks in my writing style for it. Your support is appreciated.

Storywriter2003: Thanks!

Dante Watterson: I appreciate the assurance.

Gehemm: That's the spirit!

JuniorVB: Sorry, I was going through writers block.)

 **The Girls Back Home**

The man in green walked down the beach, the sun having set, and the sand having turned cold. He had accidently bought a ticket to a bay on the opposite side of Delmarva, and he had to walk all day to make it to his destination.

"So much for having a map in my mind," He muttered to himself in his thick Irish accent. He adjusted the guitar case on his back; the strap had started to make his shoulder sore. You wouldn't notice if you weren't looking for it, but that case was the only thing he had brought with him over the seas. "Finally," He sighed as he came upon his home. The same beautiful, but slightly deteriorating stone temple; the place never seemed to change. Not even six hundred years of wear and tear made a dent in the place. He looked on with pride as he rubbed the orange-red gem on the back of his neck. As he got closer he noticed a new wooden addition to the temple. "That's kinda strange," He thought out loud as he walked up the stairs to the temple.

Steven lay on his side in bed with the covers up to his neck. He hadn't moved from this position in a long time. He got up to use the bathroom and that was it. His stomach had twisted in hunger pains, and his throat was sore and parched, but he just didn't care. Each of his loved ones had tried to forgive him, coax him out, or convince him that it wasn't his fault even Peridot at one point, but to Steven the facts were laid out clearly. He failed to restore the lunar tower, when the tower broke Lolite was freed, after Lolite was freed she made an army, and then freed Obsidian. He had single handedly started a war, and he just couldn't forgive himself, yet. The sound of the screen door opening brought Steven out of his thoughts. He hadn't remembered any of the gems leaving so that means that Connie must've come visit. She had tried to cheer Steven up before, and failed just like the rest, but still, having Connie around made him feel better even if he didn't realize it. He turned around and saw a tall man wearing a green tweed jacket, gray flat cap, and guitar case on his back looking around like he had stepped into another world or something. Steven's surprise momentarily brought him out of his depression.

"Um hello?" Steven greeted nervously. Amethyst had been resting her eyes with her head on the counter and her weight on the bar stool. When the door had opened she had made the same assumption as Steven, and continued to rest, but Steven's subsequent reaction had alerted her to something new. Her eyes shot open and she sprung up from her spot ready to deal with the intruder. She looked him over for a stark second, and then stiffened, as she realized who she was looking at. She thought it impossible; she thought she was going crazy, she hoped she was going crazy; it would've been better than this being real. The man turned his attention to the purple gem, and smiled widely.

"Hey, Amethyst it's me Jacinth," He clarified knowing that she probably wouldn't recognize him after thousands of years. Tears started to flow silently from her eyes as Jacinth looked at her with confusion. "What's the matter, not happy to see me," he joked trying to ease the tension building in the room. Little did he know that he had hit the nail right on the head. Amethyst's face twisted in anger as her gem started to glow. Jacinth's eyes widened and he started to back away as she drew her whip.

"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" She screamed while swinging the whip right across his chest and sent him through the screen door, through the bannister, and onto the beach. Jacinth looked up in daze. He knew that he did some really bad stuff, but he didn't think that would be grounds for getting this angry.

"Amethyst, what the hell!" He shouted to the purple gem emerging from the house. Steven just watched; he didn't know what to make of the situation. He didn't know this person, and for all he knew he was another evil gem like Obsidian or Lolite. Sure he helped Peridot change, but he learned that there were limits to his help. Amethyst jumped off the deck and formed a spikey ball in mid-air. Jacinth called upon the skills he acquired from the olden days and pulled a five foot long poll with a rectangular block of stone at the end out of the gem on the back of his neck. He brought the hammer up quickly to stop Amethyst's attacks. Sparks flew as he spiked exterior grinded on the material of his weapon; a strong thrust threw her back onto her feet. "Fuckin' 'ell what are you doin'!?"

"HOW DARE YOU COME BACK?! I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD; YOU SHOULD'VE LEFT IT THAT WAY!"

"Don't you think you're overreacting a little bit?" Jacinth said coolly, desperately trying to stop this. He didn't want to hurt an old friend. Amethyst's eyes narrowed at Jacinth's words and she charged at him full speed while drawing her second whip. She lashed out wildly. He fell to his knees to just barley escape the first swing, and then jumped up as she brought the second whip down into the sand, sending debris everywhere. He kept dodging her hits in refusal to fight back until one whip wrapped around his ankle, and slammed him into the ground. She stood over him with her arms crossed and an angry scowl plastered on her features. He couldn't dodge what would come next and he knew it.

"What have you got to say now?!" Amethyst yelled.

"Amethyst, don't make me do this. I don't want to do this," he growled intimidatingly. When she took another step he felt himself sadden, but the urgent instincts had already taken over. His lips twisted into an animalistic grin as various spot in his skin split apart under his clothes. Amethyst's resolve broke as she backed away; she had no idea what was coming. Frankly she was scared, and was regretting that she hadn't thought this out. He stood up as his eyes disappeared into pools of solid white and small bumps started to bulge under his jacket. They grew until the fabric ripped. From the paper thin openings sprung six blades like appendages that seemed to be made up of red and black energy that constantly swirled and moved within the blades. He took one step before he lost his wind. He couldn't breath and he felt an intense pain in his chest followed by a lesser pain across his back. When he opened his eyes he found himself in knee deep water, pressed against a rock, with a giant red fist at his feet, and a 15th of an inch deep dent in his chest plate where the fist used to be. He looked at the three gems on the deck. Two of them were his old friends, but he didn't know the third one. He wheezed and gurgled as he tried to speak with a crushed diaphragm. He held out his hand to Pearl and Garnet, begging for mercy or an explanation for why they were trying to kill him. Garnet jumped to his position and slammed him against the rock, staring into his eyes from behind her glasses. He focused all of his caine on healing his injuries before another one of his friends could kill him.

"You just left?" Garnet asked, knowing she wouldn't get an answer. "I thought that you had died that night. I thought you were a hero, but here you are. You just ran away," Jacinth didn't know what she was talking about; yeah he had left, but why would he have died? "You don't even know what you did do you?" she said coldly "You deserted us without telling anyone. You left your post unguarded on the night of the invasion!" She yelled. Jacinth's eyes widened. He had left his section of the perimeter unguarded right before a home world invasion! They found the blind spot and used the element of surprise. "If you were there you could've sounded the alarm," She said smashing him into the rock. "We wouldn't have lost half of our armory," she said smashing him into the rock again. "We wouldn't have lost Emerald and Topaz!" She let go of him, and walked away. He fell limply against the rock with wide and now tearing eyes. He had known they were gone, almost everyone was, but it was his fault two of his best friends had died.

"I'm sorry," He choked out. Garnet froze in her tracks, and looked back at the pathetic excuse for soldier behind her.

"I know," She said maliciously as she continued to walk away. Jacinth fell to his knees in the water; silently begging it to carry him away from here. He watched as the other four walked inside, and hung his head. He couldn't help but remember why he had left. Of course, it was just like his memory to kick him while he was down.

(A/N: Sorry if this seemed a little confusing. I was just trying to build it up for the big reveal you know. The next chapter might be a little more interesting, but also maybe not. I do write these things as I go along.)


	18. Broken Inside

Disclaimer: I don't own Steven Universe

(A/N: Okay, so apparently I really messed up last chapter. I can only assume that none of you liked it since I didn't get any reviews for it and I would have at least gotten two by now. You're being very polite and following the "if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything" rule, and I thank you for that. I'm sorry if you didn't like it, and I would try to re-write it, but it wouldn't make any difference because I'm the one who's writing it, and I don't know of any other way to build that growing anticipation I was going for. I'm very sorry and I hope that this chapter makes it better. On a brighter note we hit over 2,200 views Wooooo!)

 **Chapter 18: Broken Inside**

Jacinth woke up slowly. First came the consciousness, then the will to force his eyes open. He awoke to the same sight he did every morning; looking up at the ceiling of his tent, which filtered just enough of the sunlight to keep it from blind him. He looked beside him to the slim figure of a female gem holding him with her head resting on his outstretched left arm. He silently chuckled at this; it was very rare that he woke up before her. He gently brushed a few strands of her bobbed hair away from her peacefully sleeping face, feeling her smooth skin in the process. He always liked her deep leaf- like green skin tone. With a soft smile on his face he turned on his side so he could look into her eyes and gently tapped a finger on the bridge of her nose. This made he stir slightly.

"Wake up, come on. It's time to get to work," He coaxed softly in an American accent. (The Irish accent was something he picked up gradually after living in Ireland for a couple thousand years). She let out a sigh trough her nose and opened her bright green eyes, shooting Jacinth a bubbly smile.

"Why can't you just let me sleep for once?" She said in a joking manner. Jacinth chuckled at the running gag between them. That's what she would say every time he woke her up, knowing full well that normally the rolls would be reversed.

"You can sleep when you're dead. Get ready; I'll wait for you outside." Jacinth begrudgingly freed himself from the warmth of his covers and walked outside into the sun. He took a deep breath of the clean spring air. This would be the twentieth spring he and Jade had spent together. Twenty years since he and her learned what love was, and that what they felt for each other wasn't a defect. Their anniversary would be coming up very soon. Jade through the fabric doors apart, falling back into [place behind her as she exited their tent. She started walking at a slightly rushed pace. This was no problem for Jacinth having a pretty large stride evened things out pretty well.

"What job do you think we'll be assigned today?" Jade asked as she returned a nod to a red skinned human passing by.

"Well we haven't been sent on reconnaissance in a while; maybe we'll get lucky," Jade let out a brief giggle.

"That would be a nice change of pace," As soon as she finished her sentence the aircraft alarm went off. Both gems shot their heads to the sky while running for shelter. Their hearts were beating **hard** , and they didn't pay any attention to their breathing, unintentionally holding their breaths not that it mattered. They saw one fly right over their heads, and their hearts jumped into their throats. These bombs were the biggest threats camps like these. They were a type of EMP that shot the energy distribution inside a gem. Their consciousness was destroyed, their default forms were rearranged, and the once loyal soldiers were left behind in the form of horrific beasts. As they drew closer to the shock proof shelter the bombs that were dropped became easier to see. They felt an extra rush of adrenaline as their run became a race; those bombs detonated ten seconds after hitting solid ground. They were right in front of the entrance that could close just as easily as it could open. As if a cruel joke, right then and there the bomb hit. A few seconds later the dust cleared, and Jacinth's heart shattered. There under the silo-like bomb was Jade's left arm. Jacinth went into complete panic mode as he scrambled to his lover, trying as hard as gemly possible to lift the bomb as the timer hit six. Jade grabbed Jacinth's chin with her free arm.

"Jack you know you can't lift this thing, just run!" she said quickly and with impact. The timer hit five.

"I'm not leaving you!" He shouted as he tried to dig her out, only to realize that the bomb had made a foot deep crater in its wake. The timer hit four. She grabbed him again, and forced her lips against his in a chaste kiss with twenty years worth of passion in it. The timer hit three.

"I love you," She practically whispered.

"I love you too," He said with teary eyes. Two. Jade grabbed the collar of his shirt and brought him close, pulling her knees up to her chest and her feet on his chest. Jacinth didn't even have time to react to this before Jade sent him flying with all of her strength. He watched silently with an opened mouth and wide eyes as Jade became farther and farther away. One. He was close to the ground when the area he was just in became encompassed by a blue electrified half sphere that bent around the shelter. He landed on his knees, and for a moment stayed completely still and silent, tears flowed freely down his face. And then it hit him all at once. He threw his head back and let out a primal shout. It dragged on for half a minute and was filled with all of his sorrow and rage, but more would come to take its place. He weakly made himself get to his knees, and walked back to the shelter. About five minutes later he was right back where he started. He was so distraught that it didn't even occur to him that Jade would be a monster now, but that didn't last long. As soon as he ran a hand on the metal of the EMP it was thrown into the air. The still glowing form of Jade grew and warped into a giant Venus flytrap like plant. It let out a high pitched screech as it wrapped one of its tentacle like vines around him, and brought him over its mouth. He closed his eyes, resigning himself to death. He didn't really care anymore. He felt himself fall and hit the ground as he opened his eyes again.

"Jack what are you doing get up, and fight!" Garnet yelled with authority as she dodged another hit form one of the remaining three vines.

"That's Jade!" Jack managed to choke out while forcing out of the grip of the dismembered vine. Garnet froze and looked to him with a slightly open mouth.

"Not anymore," She mumbled with a hint of sadness in voice, leaping back into battle. With a mighty strike she deformed half of it eyeless face. Jack winced and reached out to the corrupted gem even though it was out of his grasp. He felt every hit. More gems joined in the fight. Dismembering the vines, aiming for the base, attempting to break through the skull in hopes of finding a vital point. He felt everything, every hit, every cut, every stab, all pain, and all the fear. He crawled closer with weakness visible in his eyes.

"Stop, please stop," He started softly at first, but as the beast's cries became more urgent so did his. "Stop, stop please, you're hurting her!" He yelled. The beast let out a final screech. "STOP!" It poofed. The green gem rolled at his hands, and he shakily reached out for all that remained of his one true love, only for the gem to be smashed into shards before his very eyes. Not even caring enough to look at who had broken it he scooped the shards up. They fell through his uncooperative fingers. He sniffled a little before letting out another cry. "AAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

Jack jolted forward panting heavily. He felt his soaked face just to see if this was real. Whether his face was wet with sweat or tears he didn't know, but the most likely answer was both. It was often that he would have this dream. It was bittersweet; on one hand it was the worst memory of his life, but on the other he got to see Jade again. He got to remember what it was like to hold her, to kiss her, to wake up next to her, to stare into her deep green eyes. This horrible dream was almost all he had left of Jade. His head shot up as he noticed the blanket on his shoulders. He had fallen asleep against a rock on top of the large hill that the temple was built into.

"Hey," He heard the child's voice in front of him, and looked up at its owner.

"You uh…looked kind of cold," He said with a straight face and toneless voice. Jack could sense pain in it, but smiled at him anyway.

(*sighs* that was a trip. God I think I'm crying. I hope you all enjoyed)


	19. Redemption

Disclaimer: I don't own Steven Universe

(A/N: Yo! Hey I know it's been a little while, but the last couple weeks have been crazy. After school functions, family gatherings, friends, and the stomach flu that's been going around Lancaster all hit me at once, forcing me to take an eight day break from writing just as it was about to be your turn in my update cycle. Apologies aside, since I took my break I've acquired three new readers! That's insane! So to Katrillion506, angel88441, and Austin Bass welcome aboard!)

 **Chapter 19: Redemption**

Jack sat up into a more comfortable position against the rock as he let a sigh of relief pass through his nose.

"Thanks, kid I appreciate it, but you should get inside. There's no need for the girls to catch you hanging around me. Not after what I've done," He said grimly. Steven felt a pang of sympathy. He knew it wouldn't help, but he also knew that no one wants to be alone when they're like this. Looking for an excuse to stay it took only a second before he noticed the guitar case sitting next to the tall gem.

"You play?" Steven asked as he felt his glum demeanor start to fade at the mention of his passion. Jack's head shot up and the corners of his mouth pulled upwards.

"Hell yeah I play," He said with enthusiasm as he undid the latches on the case to reveal a 1967 Guild acoustic guitar. Steven's eyes turned to stars as he gazed at the rare instrument.

"No way," Steven gaped in awe. "There's no way that's real!"

"Hehe, as real as they come. It's just another perk of being a gem. But things when they're cheap, sell them when they're not," Jack explained as he began to tune one of his few possessions. "This however is an exception. Sometimes it feels like I need it; it's the only thing that can take my mind off things on nights like tonight," He finished with a sad smile. Steven let his vision drop down to his crossed legs as he felt tears begin to prick his eyes, but not enough for them to be visible.

"Yeah I can relate," he said solemnly.

"You're what twelve? What could you have done that's that bad?" Jack asked in disbelief. Steven took in a deep breath.

 _He's a gem, he's here, and he's in danger too. He deserves to know_. So Steven explained everything. **Everything**. What happened to his mother, that he was actually fourteen, their current situation with Jersey Devil, and how it was all his fault. It took a while for Jack to get over a few things, namely Rose's death, the cluster, and Obsidian's return. Steven just sat there looking at the ground with a few tears falling freely to the grass below.

"Oh shite," Jack groaned as rubbed the left side of his face. He looked at the young boy across from him, and suddenly had an epiphany. "Well, being sad about it s'not going to help anything," Jack said confidently.

 _Here we go. Why can't they understand that I'm like this because I've put everyone I know and love in danger? He of all people should understand._ Steven thought in frustration.

"Sure we messed up. We messed up really bad, but just sitting around all sad, and shite isn't going to get us anywhere. We may not be able to go back and undo what we've done, but what we can do is try to fix it. Everyone has a chance at redemption," Jack said with a smile. For some reason Steven felt… better. It was strange; he had heard similar things from the others, but hearing it from someone who's been there meant more. He felt the sorrow in his soul be replaced by hope.

"You know what, I think you might be right," Steven said cheerfully as a pair of head lights caught his attention out the corner of his eye. From here he could see a familiar jeep pulling up to the light house. The conversation must've taken longer than it had felt. _Geez I hope they had a better night than I did._ No such luck.

 _Six hours earlier_

Our heroes walk around in an empty field almost two towns over. The moon lit the flat patch of land well as the six teenage adventurers walked around cautiously.

"Sadie, are you sure this is the right place?" Jenny asked curiously. The leader of the team looked through binoculars in an attempt to prepare for any approaching threats.

"These are the coordinates Garnet gave me, but she said that she's been having trouble with her future vision. She said it's as if the paths keep running in different directions before they all merge into one point and then split of into millions of straight paths. Nothing's ever been for sure, but now she doesn't even know what to expect," Sadie explained. Jenny was about to reply but was interrupted by a subtle rumble in the ground. A look around let her know that the others had felt it as well. The rumbles became more consistent and gradually increased in intensity. Sadie was now frantically scanning the area until suddenly her heart dropped into her stomach.

"Oh no," She whimpered.

"Let me see!" Lars quickly put the magnifying lens up to his eyes before he felt his heart start to pound in correspondence with the rumbling, which was in fact caused by the out of sync shambling of countless gem mutants. "Someone call the gems," Lars commanded in fear, knowing this would not end well. Sadie took out her phone, but it wouldn't turn on.

"Anyone else?" Sadie asked with hope, but to no avail. She couldn't explain why their phones refused to work, but she didn't have time to worry about it. The army was approaching, and she needed to prepare her team. "Alright everyone, just over that hill is a giant mob of force fusions like the one Ron showed us! Are we ready for this? Probably not, but we can't turn back. If we run away now those things are going to plow through two towns and Beach City!" The team nodded and listened intently. "Here's the plan, divide and conquer. Spread out destroy them, don't let any of them get passed us. We are the first and last line of defense. If you feel like you're starting to get overwhelmed get the heck out of there! They're weak, but there's a ton of them!" Just as Sadie finished the rumbling stopped, and the team looked up to the unorganized formation of mutated gems. The team drew their weapons and felt their resolve and determinations fuel their caine. A bright red light made itself known above the wall of synthetic flesh. At the speed of sound that red dot plummeted to the ground resulting in a crater. From the crater arose a fierce gem beast. Its skin was the darkest shade of black anyone had ever seen, its limbs and body were twice the size of a person with black feathered wings folding against its back for easy storage. It raised the giant broad sword in its right hand parted its seemingly serrated lips to reveal a powerful blood red light. With the light came a screech telling his legions to destroy the enemy. The team knew how much could go wrong, but they were determined to protect their loved ones, or in some cases what remained of them.

(A/N: A cliffhanger, now? Isn't that a bit of a cop-out? Yes, yes it is. Sorry about this, I would've made this an extended chapter, but I haven't worked on Overtale reloaded since the 26th)


	20. The Devil's Number

Disclaimer: I don't own Steven Universe

(A/N: Alright everybody it's your turn again! I want to jump right into the action, so let's get the reviews out of the way.

Storywriter2003: Thanks!

Dante Watterson: Thank you

Guest: Wow I didn't think anyone would get this excited over this story. That this would be one of those things that only kept you half interested, and that you only read because you're bored. Thank you!

Junior VB: HELL YEAH THEY ARE!

Austin Morgan: Welcome Aboard!)

 **Chapter 20: The devil's number**

The mutated gems started to close the gap between them and the six warriors.

"This is insane! We can't take on this many!" Sour screamed in panic.

"We have to try! We have the strength, we have the responsibility! If we die then fine, we'll take out as many as we can!" Sadie commanded as her caine started to manifest itself and roll off of her like steam. However Lars' wasn't doing as well; he had his mind on other things.

"Sadie, if we don't make it out of this alive I just want you to know-"Lars was cut off as his girlfriend grabbed him by the collar out brought their lips together in a tender kiss.

"I love you too," Sadie whispered as she pulled away and gripped her spear tighter in her hands. She looked over to see Jenny and sour sharing the same sentiments, and then to Ronaldo who was undoubtedly trying to read the command given to the nightmare creature he codenamed Beelzebub.

"There are exactly six hundred and sixty-six force fusions in the mob!" Ron stated as Lars climbed onto the roof of the black van to use as a vantage point. "They have all been put under the temporary command of Beelzebub! Beelzebub's orders are to fight their way to beach city, and attack the temple, but if they see any of us we take top priority! You hear that, so long as we're alive they're not going anywhere!" Ron finished.

"Then let's give them a fight they'll never forget!" Sadie shouted as she charged to the wall of shambling monsters, the others following suit. Lars struck the first blow. He Ron and Sour had rigged up arrows that would explode like claymores in case they were ever necessary. He loaded one after the other light each fuse with his electricity and then firing into the middle of the crowd as to prevent friendly fire. Sadie had just dispatched her first force fusion when her attention was drawn by seven explosions each one subsequent to each other and in a straight line. Each explosion must've taken out ten of the clumped together monsters. She looked back to her boyfriend, who shot her a thumbs up which she returned. Turning her attention back to the fight wound her arms back and let them go in a deadly thrust, pricing right through the force fusion in front of her. The thrusts kept coming; hard and fast as if they were coming out of the barrels of a mini-gun. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 none of her opponents could rival her skill or strength. She felt a breeze on her back as if an enemy had begun to strike; she whipped around ready to dispatch it, but instead found that Buck had blocked the deformed arm for her. He looked back and slashed her smile before slicing the gem in half before moving on. Chopping through the ranks of the just barley living he soon found him encircled by twelve of the, each one with its own horrific form. He raised his axe and swung down with all of his might spider web cracks in the earth sprung his blade followed by the eerie red light. As the gems walked on a blast of magma erupted in a solid ring, destroying each of them in an inferno. He stood there for a moment to catch his breath; his tectonic blasts took a lot out of him. To his extreme surprise he was tackled to the ground in a matter of seconds. He felt a rush of fear wash over him as the mutant gems shook off his attempts to dispatch them, and continuously landed strikes to his ribs and stomach. He couldn't even tell how many of them there were as the seemingly endless arms rained down on him. Buck's salvation came in the form of a chain wielding dark skinned girl who had whipped all four of them off with one force sweep. Sitting up Buck looked to Jenny as he tried to get his breathing under control.

"Thanks…I owe you," He said as he jumped to his feet and readied his weapon to keep history from repeating itself.

"Don't worry about it," Jenny chimed as she force swept an incoming mutant in half vertically. Letting the long spikes spring from the steel links, she flung the chain into one force fusion. The spikes dug into the synthetic flesh which caused even more damage when Jenny ripped them out destroying its form. Without pausing for a second she flung the chain behind her repeating the process on a second mutant. She smiled widely a Sour sprinted passed her as a multi colored blur leaving only a rush of wind behind. Sour ran forward and leapt as high as he could into the air, which was pretty high thanks to his training with Pearl. Focusing a decent amount of caine into his right hand as he began to fall; he prepared himself, waiting until the exact moment he hit the ground.

"Drop the base!" He shouted as his fist slammed into the ground, releasing a wave of pure base. The unrealistically low hertz was too much for the unprotected force fusions to take, and every gem within a ten foot radius shook before they disappeared into a ring of smoke. Sour acted fast as his personal space was quickly being filled by the force fusions. Reaching behind him he took out the two bombs he kept hooked to his belt while was on shift. "Why don't you try this on for size!" Sour yelled as he lit them with his zippo, and tossed both of them in opposite directions just as he was forced to continue fighting for his life. He gripped the short blade in his fingers and swung it as fast as he could to break out of the mob that would undoubtedly eventually get the better of him. He swung three times, dispatching three gems before the bombs went off on both sides of him. They were far enough away not to be caught in the blast, but the shockwave still through the shambling monsters off balance, which the young DJ took advantage of to jump away. Ron watched as the pale blonde soared over his head, taking a hit to his back as a reward. He stumbled forward into another enemy which struck him across the face, sending him to the ground. The camo clad theorist watched as five or more monsters started to surround him. As if on instinct he pulled the colt python from the holster on his hip, unloading a bullet each into the center mass of each force fusion, for lack of a more obvious vital point. He got back to his feet and reloaded as he began to dual wield the gun and sword. Those QCQ lessons on YouTube were finally about to pay off. He slashed at one then turned around to shoot another one. This effective rhythm continued until he heard something rather disturbing. Having slain the force fusions closest to him he himself frees to look around to where he had heard the primal thoughts. He froze as his eyes landed on Beelzebub, who stared back into his eyes. Its mouth cracked open slightly letting out a stream of red smoke. Its skin became decorated by red glowing symbols that wrapped around its body. Its solid red eyes became broken by white pupils that pierced through Ron's being as its entire presence began to shake violently. Ron felt his heartbeat quicken and a cold sweat start to form on his forehead.

 _This thing is like nothing we've ever faced before! No, that's not true. I've felt this way before. In fact it's as if I'm fighting Jersey Devil all over again._ Ron's thoughts went wild. A beam of red energy shot from Beelzebub's black maw with Ron in the crosshairs. The sword wielder rolled out of the way just in time to avoid the destructive force. He looked back at the crater left by the beam and then back to the evil being that had shot at him. He had a very bad feeling about all of this.

 **To Be Continued!**

(A/N: I love you guys. You're by far my best readers! Shh you didn't hear that from me.)


	21. The Devil's Number Pt 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Steven Universe

(A/N: I just want to take some time to thank all of you guys for twenty chapters, 32,085 words, 2,753 views, 60 reviews, 15 favorites, and 14 follows. Thank you all so much. You've provided me with more motivation than almost anything else in my life thus far. And to StevenUniverlover1255 and LordMetallix66n, welcome aboard!

StoryWriter2003: Whoa thanks! I never would've thought that I deserved this. But I'm not quite there yet. When was the last time you read a real novel like this? I'm not there yet, but I'm not giving up either.)

 **Chapter 21: The Devil's Number Pt.2**

The team Stayed huddled together. Bruised and beaten they slouched over to catch their breath as the force fusions started to recede back to Beelzebub where they made a wall like formation.

"What are they doing?" Sadie asked while looking at Ron as she leaned on her spear to rest a moment.

"They're regrouping. They know they can't waste anymore men on us if they're going to take on the gems, so they're going to form a wall and smash into us until we run out of caine," Ron explained between pained breaths.

"That's not going to take long; my caine is running low as it is. Once it's gone that's it…It's been great doing this with you guys. I always wanted to make a difference in the world, so thank you all for helping me with that," Buck said in his usual stoic tone, but with a melancholy undertone.

"Enough of that, we're not dead yet," Sadie said with conviction a breeze blew across the grassy plane. "How many of them are left?" She turned to Ron once more.

"There are around four hundred and thirty left," Ron replied with defeat evident in his voice.

"DAMN IT!" Sadie shouted as she slammed the dull end of her spear into the ground. "We can't lose, we can't afford to lose!" She yelled as tears started to prick her eyes. She looked up when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up to Lars who was giving her a smile as if to say _it's going to be okay._ He looked back up with steely eyed determination.

"I'm out of arrows," He said blankly. Ron and Sadie quickly handed him their knives as he tossed his bow onto the ground. No one said anything as the horde of force fusions started to charge forward just like last time. No one had anything else to say, Sour simply took Jenny's hand as they watched their imminent doom approaching. They were all shocked as a blue blur zoomed past the horde leaving a line of explosions in its path. The team stared in awe as the six plumes of fire rose and disappeared in matter of moments. The blur came back around and stopped right in front of the six exhausted teens. Sour's eyes grew as wide as dinner plates at the figure that sat before him.

"O-onion! What are you doing here?!" The pale DJ yelled in shock. The smaller child said nothing as he reloaded the hammer grenade launcher in his hands. His blank stare scanned over the exhausted heroes and then immediately turned back to the mob as he grabbed hold of the accelerator on his moped, and rode back into the battle. Sour shook off his astonishment and went to run after him, but was shocked once again when a black Lexus rolled up, and two people immediately jumped out. Lars' eyes went just as wide as Sour's had been as Alex accompanied by Connie sprung out of the car. Lars ran up to his brother with confusion evident on his features.

"Alex, how did you know I was here?!" The taller male ignored Lars as he readied a NATO machine gun. "Where the hell did you get that?!" Alex's half lidded eyes turned to Lars for a moment before he lay down on the ground and started firing into the mob. Connie kept a similar expression as she tossed her scabbard to the side and began fighting as well. Her blank eyes glowed blue as a swarm of rocks were ripped from the ground and sent flying into the mutated monsters at the speed of a bullet, destroying the forms of twenty three more force fusions. Sadie impaled six force fusions that had gotten too close to Lars and Alex, Breathing heavily as she did so.

"Damnit Alex, why won't you answer me!" Lars shouted with worry as he shook Alex by the shoulders.

"Lars, leave him; he can take care of himself!" The short blonde yelled as she batted another force fusion away. Lars didn't notice his girlfriend ion the heat of the moment.

"What's wrong with you?!" Lars shouted once more, but was quickly shaken by a scream from Sadie. His head whipped around so fast it could've given him whiplash. Sadie had been pinned down by a particularly big force fusion that was made up of a deformed torso with legs sprouting out of it like a spider. "Sadie!" Lars sprung from his spot next to his brother and leapt onto the monster's back. He activated his electric aura as she stabbed the knives into its back, destroying it almost immediately. Sadie took a deep breath as Lars helped her up. Lars caught something out the corner of his eye, and reacted fast enough to throw himself in front of Sadie as a giant gem mutant hurdled toward them. Just as the monster was about to make contact, a pink blade encompassed in a blue light impaled it. Lars gulped hard as the blade retracted and flew back into the hands of its user, who immediately swung around to dismember an incoming enemy. The explosions continued to rain down on the helpless gem mutants. Meanwhile Beelzebub had decided that it was tired of watching, and took chase for the blue moped. Onion looked behind him at the giant monster with an unchanging expression. He sped up and hooked a left in an attempt to lose the winged gem beast. But Beelzebub was too fast for the moped and swung its giant sword at the vehicle. The blade missed by a micrometer and caused Onion to swerve to a halt. Sour caught wind of the danger that his little brother was in just as the giant started to charge up its brimstone. In an instant Sour put all of his caine into his legs and spirited faster than he ever had or will; slicing four mutants that stood in his way with lightning fast speed. Just before Beelzebub could fire at the child still trying to steady his launcher for a shot; Sour propelled himself forward and focused his caine into his hands. He felt them pulsate as he landed on the corrupted general's back and slammed them down on both sides of its head. The high frequency vibrations shot through Beelzebub's skull like a pair of cannon balls, and it reeled its head back letting the blast it had been charging shoot into the sky. Sour jumped away before it could retaliate, as Beelzebub slumped over, letting glowing red liquid drip from its nose, eyes, and mouth. Sour went in for a strike with his machete, but was slapped away by a hand roughly half the size of him. The tall teen found himself sailing through the air, making the gradual decline until he hit the ground, and rolled to a halt. Beelzebub rose to its feet and looked ahead as Onion rode away into the thinning mob of force fusions. Its head shot up as it heard the sound of something large approaching by air. Suddenly machine gun fire poured down from the sky and into the remaining two hundred fifty gem mutants. The sound of gun fire only increased as a pair of choppers descended from the sky and came in for a landing on opposite sides of the army. The team watched as soldiers clad in black jumped out of the air vehicles and began to take aim. Two men stood out in particular, one was dressed in a tan trench coat and had short black hair; the other was a middle aged man who wore a white dress shirt with blue jeans.

"Spread out! Don't let a single one escape!" The younger man commanded, and then looked to Beelzebub. "Leave this one to us," He said as an afterthought as the middle aged man walked beside him. The team was still letting the fact that they weren't going to die sink in as they stayed back and let the soldiers take care of things.

Ron had every right to be suspicious. First Alex, Connie, and Onion show up in a trance like state, and then a company of soldiers show up? There's no way the two aren't connected. Ron focused on the soldiers one at a time until he found what he needed.

"Sidewinder," he said in confirmation. He then focused on Alex who was closest to him. _Destroy any and all combatant's forms. Protect the others._ "It's unnatural, it's like he's been programmed," He thought in deep contemplation. Meanwhile Jenny had rushed over to Sour's side.

"You alright, bae?" She asked, looking down to Sour who was still lying on the ground.

"It hurts to breath," He said in a strained voice as he tried to focus on anything other than the crazy burning in his torso.

"You gonna live?" She asked worriedly as she slung his right arm over her shoulder, and picked him up. He let out a hiss of pain and then smirked.

"So long as I have your eyes to look into," He said with a slight chuckle. Jenny rolled her eyes with a smirk.

The two men strode up to Beelzebub.

"What do you say Ryker? Easy Pickens?" The younger man asked in a raspy voice, as if he had twenty years of smoking under his belt.

"Think again Joshua, see those runes?" The middle aged man asked as he pointed to the glowing red symbols on the creature's black skin. "This things been imbued with caine," He explained as Beelzebub raised its sword.

"Hella lot of it by the looks of it," Said Joshua as Beelzebub opened its mouth and slid its sword through it, leaving a thick red energy on the blade. It swung diagonally releasing a wave of brimstone

"I'm getting too old for this!" Ryker yelled as he jumped away from the destructive force. Joshua gazed in shock at the crater made by the attack.

"Whoa! First time I've ever seen that!" He exclaimed as he drew two dessert eagles from his coat, and began firing. The gun seemed to shoot bolts of fire in place of bullets. They flew through the air unit Beelzebub deflected them with its sword. It quickly charged up its brimstone and fired at Joshua, who rolled out of the way and continued shooting from the guns that never seemed to run out of ammo.

"You still have much to learn," Ryker teased as he put a pair of special looking gloves on. They looked like they were made out of metal, but bent easily as Ryker balled his fists.

"Bullshit!" Joshua yelled as he ran out of the way of a sword strike from the demon like creature.

"Let me show you how it's done," He called out as he put Beelzebub in a headlock from behind. It let out a screech before flying into the air with the aging man still on its back. "First you get a good grip, don't let go. Then you just keep on tightening and tightening, until its eyes start to bulge out." Ryker kept his grip through the ariel aces and barrel rolls. Finally Beelzebub collected itself and swung its claws behind him, digging them into Ryker's left shoulder. Ryker let out a gasp of pain and loosened his grip enough for Beelzebub to throw the sidewinder agent off. Ryker fell to the ground and rolled to lessen the damage.

"What was that about having a lot to learn?" Joshua asked sarcastically as he continued shooting. He could feel the caine in his eyes improving his aim, even going as far as to account for the wind, and distance.

"This one's stronger than most of the incarnates we've fought before. Stay on your toes,"

"You've got it," Joshua said, knowing full well that he had landed six shots just now. The glowing red liquid trickled through the sky as Joshua kept filling the beast with holes. Finally Beelzebub came in for dive. Joshua realized all too late what was happening and couldn't move in time to dodge the strike. He reeled back as he took a deep gash in his right arm. Ryker took the opportunity to latch onto the beast's wings with the vice grips he calls hands, and broke them with one caine fueled squeeze. Beelzebub let out another screech as it crashed into the ground. Acting immediately it swung it right elbow back into Ryker's face, knocking him away. Beelzebub got up just in time to sue its sword to bash Joshua away, who had tried to finish the fight with a point blank shot. The agents dragged themselves off the ground to see Beelzebub charging up another shot. Josh felt for his pistols, but immediately found them…at Beelzebub's feet. Gulping hard, Josh sprinted for his guns, and only chance for survival.

"No don't!" Ryker yelled, but it was too late; there was no turning back now. Josh looked at his guns then up at the beast then back at his guns again. He knew he wasn't going to make it. Beelzebub started to shoot, but jerked back and froze, and then it fell to the ground to reveal a steaming Sadie with her spear through Beelzebub. Joshua froze in place for a moment until the gem beast poofed, and Sadie dropped to her knees. The man smiled.

"Thanks for the save," He said as he reached for his pistols.

"No problem," She gasped. "Now can you please tell me what the hell is going on?" Josh idly holstered his guns as he began to explain.

"Our sensors picked up large concentrations of gem current; an electronic signal emitted by gems. We figured it couldn't be good news," Josh walked away. "Alright boys bag'em and tag'em; you miss one and next thing you know our cover's blown. Sadie caught up to him and persisted onward.

"What about them?" Sadie asked with hits of venom as she pointed to the three tranced people approaching them. Once there they stopped and stood perfectly still.

"Oh so they called in sleeper agents. Joshua, what are the deactivation codes for these newer models?"

"That answer your question," He asked sarcastically while looking down at Sadie. "ZK-016-538" Alex, Connie, and Onion all walked straight to Alex's car, Onion leaving his moped behind.

"Those are our friends!" Sadie yelled.

"Makes sense; they always plant them close." Ryker cut in as the soldiers started to load up on the helicopters.

"Where are you going?!" Lars yelled as the two agents made their way onto one of the choppers.

"Home, it's past five and I'm going to bed." Josh answered.

"We're not done talking yet!" Said Lars as he became increasingly angry.

"It's above our pay roll! Talk to Charlie!" Ryker yelled over the chopper blades as they took off.

"GOD DAMN IT!" Lars shouted and slammed his foot on the ground. Sadie took his hand in hers to try to console him. Lars let out am sigh. "How can things get any worse?"

(A/N: Dear god that took a long time! Sorry for anything that sounded stupid, but I just got tired of looking at this.)


	22. Intermission

Disclaimer: I don't own Steven Universe

(A/N: Back again! Sorry for the absence, but it's the fourth quarter: crunch time! Believe me Updates well come much more frequently in the summer. Also I've hit writer's block with my stories. I might need to stop writing for just a little while because now when I look at one of my chapters, my automatic reaction is to cringe like its homework. You see I made this work. I put myself on this schedule, I spend all of my free time on it, and it's not fun anymore. So I'm going to try and come at this differently from now on, and hopefully I'll get my drive back soon.

Storywriter2003: Thanks, that's exactly what I was going for. I was trying to give you a better idea on what Sidewinder really was.)

 **Chapter 22: Intermission**

Back at the light house the team rested where ever they were able. Their exhaustion was at its peak, but the pain emanating from their bruises and sore muscles. Lars and Sadie leaned against each other on a recently purchased love seat, while Sour and Jenny did the same on the couch. Ron let out a hiss of pain as he let himself fall into his desk chair to eventually write his report. Lars let out a heavy sigh as his place a hand over his left eye.

"How?" he asked rhetorically. He had yet to come to terms with the fact that his brother was a sleeper agent. Sour had been fighting the same internal battle, but was less prone to talking to himself. A familiar wolf like creature popped up at Jenny's side.

"Are you okay? Do you need anything?" Lazarus asked with a twinge of concern in his voice. He had been worried sick when he saw his friend's conditions, and even more so after they explained to him what had happened. Jenny smiled weakly and scratched him between the ears.

"Nah I'm good, thanks Lazzy," Lazarus felt a small smile tug at his lips at the gesture. He had felt a lot better since he made friends with the team. His anxiety cleared up, he wasn't startled as easily, and he even started talking more. It felt weird to him, though. These people who had just saved him a few weeks ago, now acted as if they would fight and die for him. It was confusing, but oddly comforting. Looking to the sheet pale (opposite of pitch black) boy next to Jenny his smile faltered.

"What about you? You don't even look like you could walk on your own,"

"Eh, bashes like the one I took will always leave you a bit sore. I didn't break anything though," Just then there was a knock at the door. Buck who had taken the least damage of all of them rose from his spot against the wall, and opened the heavy wood door. You couldn't tell just by looking at him, but on the inside he was making a face of distain.

"May I come in?" Kalvin asked coolly, his sunglasses glinting with moonlight shining through the window. The rest of the team turned their heads at the familiar and unwanted voice. Buck knew that it wasn't a question.

"Yeah come in," The taller boy replied flatly as he stepped to the side as the African American man walked inside. Striding in a straight line to the coffee table in the center of the room, he sat a black brief case onto the wooden surface. Before he could open it though he looked or rather moved his head to face the wall. He immediately turned to the short wolf boy standing beside the couch. Lazarus felt a little nervous under the blind man's non-existent gaze.

"Ah Agate I presume. Nice to meet you; this well be over shortly," He said as he opened the case to reveal a screen with the same audio set up as before.

"Kalvin, you're late," Charlie stated mater-of-factly.

"Sorry sir," Charlie cleared his throat, and continued.

"Nice work ladies and gentleman, a unit of our own men wouldn't have been able to hold off that attack for as long as you did," Short videos of the fight them YAF had experienced replaced the audio screen. "You work so efficiently with each other," He commented as the video switched to another one. This video showed at least four gem mutants clawing at something on the ground until a black chain forced them off. Jenny ran into the shot quickly and offered a hand to the camera. Buck's jaw dropped as he felt the glasses still on his face where the camera had to have been. "You even worked well with sleeper agents that showed up half way through," The video changed to a first person view of a machete wielding man sprinting through gem mutants, and attacking a huge black skinned gem beast just in time to let a little boy ride away, before being sent flying. The team couldn't believe what they were seeing.

"Listen up you son of a bitch," A slightly high voice said angrily. Lars leaned forward and gritted his teeth. "You can use me however you want, odds are I would do it on my own anyway, but I won't just sit here and let you control my brother like some puppet. You got that?!" The red headed boy shouted. Charlie didn't try to talk before Sour Leaned on his thighs.

"Same here," he tried to shout, but found he couldn't. After a swath of silence Charlie spoke once more.

"Your brother was there?" He asked confusedly. Lars and Sour looked at each other.

"Yeah," Lars answered calmly. He must've been the one Charlie was talking to because he didn't correct him.

"Hm," The man said in contemplation.

"What?" Lars asked with aggravation clear in his voice.

"N-nothing" Charlie said quickly, too quickly. Sour felt something inside of him snap.

"I am so sick of your **shit**!" The last word accidently turned into an angry screech that broke the computer. A moment of silence passed before Charlies voice resounded from somewhere else in the room.

"Damn it, that was expensive!" The team looked around in confusion.

"What on earth?" Sadie mumbled. Kalvin pulled his phone put of his pocket and turned it towards the group.

"Look you guys get the idea. Just take a little time off to lick your wounds, okay? I'll have my guys handle things for a little while," And with that he hung up, leaving Kalvin to walk away, which he did without a word, and closing the door behind him. Everyone still present felt themselves relax, but were still kept awake, by one question. Were they really safe?

Jersey Devil sat in his black marble like throne. He had been sitting there for hours awaiting the results of this battle. He grew more and more tense as each single gem mutant he deployed was destroyed and captured. Until finally a stream of re energy slid under his chamber door and fused into his body. He let out a primal growl and clenched his fists so tight that his knuckles cracked before slamming his right hand into the armrest of his throne, smashing it into pieces.

" **DAMN IT HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?! THE CRYSTAL GEMS THEMSELVES WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN ABLE TO TAKE ON AN ARMY OF THAT SIZE! THERE HAS TO BE SOMEONE ELSE HELPING THEM!** " Lolite stood quietly, not daring to interrupt her king in this state.

"What do we do now my lord?" She asked after seeing that the beast she willingly served had calmed down.

"Now? There's only one thing left to do now." After a moment of silence flames burst from Obsidian's empty eyes. Shooting his gaze to the ceiling he let out a shout. " **DO YOU HEAR ME YOU FOLL?! YOU WILL MEET THE SAME FATE THAT ALL WHO OPPOSED ME HAVE! I WILL SCORCH YOU SO SEVERLY THAT YOUR ASHES WILL SCREAM FOR WATER! I WILL DESTROY YOU SO OBSOLUTLEY THAT YOU MATTER WILL BE ESPONGED FROM THE UNIVERSE! THERE IS NOTHING TO SAVE YOU!** " As he finished his speech he looked over to Lolite who had a familiar grin on her face.

"Thy will be done,"

(A/N: And with that we enter a half arc. This little bit of filler will focus on development. Giving you a better understanding of things. Jenny and Sour's relationship and the agents you've seen featured in this chapter and the last one. If you have any suggestions let me hear'em.)


	23. A Ballad For Ebony

Disclaimer: I don't own Steven Universe

(A/N: Okay, so I noticed that no one particularly liked the last chapter. That's okay, it wasn't really important. Like I said that was the beginning of a filler bomb. A part of the show where there is a pause in action and the focus is shifted to character development or drama to keep things interesting. This is going to be sort of experimental, and I don't really know what I want to do with this beyond a few ideas so I will be taking requests in PM form to prevent spoilers. I am obligated to credit Storywriter2003 with the advice to slow things down, so that the story isn't just blind fighting.)

 **Chapter 23: A Ballad for Ebony**

A pale skinned boy, no older than ten sat on the edge of a dock, kicking his feet as he typed furiously on the old-school laptop on his lap. He would come to this spot on the docks often. He came when the weather was nice, he came when he got a bad grade on a test, he came when he needed to forget that his dad ran out on him, and he came when the kids at school had given him a hard time. That was the worst. It's not as if he was any different from them on the inside, he wasn't annoying, he wasn't a show off in fact he was usually very quiet, but he was albino. It wasn't even like he was one of the deformed albinos, or that he had red eyes like some of the others do, but what other reason do kids need to make another person's life a hell. One only needs a deformity, a deficiency, brown or yellow skin, or even just red hair in some cases. So long as humans existed there would be hatred, and the boy knew this as a fact, sadly.

"Bring the base a little lower," Sour said to himself, shaking off his sadness as he worked on his newest song. It was a remix of the original RVB theme song; he like tinkering with songs like this; most of the work was already done for him, so he could just play around with them.

" _Violets are blue, roses are red, living like this we're already dead,_ " he liked that line, it clicked with him. The song played on a little longer before being expertly mixed with Walk this way by Run DMC. It sounded half decent.

"Hey, that sounds pretty good," A feminine voice chimed from behind him. Sour was slightly startled, almost dropping the portable computer into the water, before steadying himself once again. Sour looked to the side to see an African American girl about his age sit down, leaning against one of the wood posts at the end of the dock. He was surprised by this; not only had someone complimented him on his music, but it was someone his age who had to have gone to his school.

"…Uh thanks!" Sour said awkwardly, completely unused to this situation. The girl smiled widely as she stuck out her hand.

"Hey, the name's Jenny, nice to meet you," She chimed as if she could feel no sorrow. Sour sat his laptop on the wood next to him before sticking his hand out as well; just in case this was a trick, and she would try to yank him into the water. Sour reached out, but it was reluctant, as if he was arguing with himself every thirty seconds. Smirking and rolling her eyes, Jenny must have decided that she done waiting and reached out to Sour's hand, who tensed up for a moment before relaxing. Jenny pumped her hand in his, shooting him the brightest smile.

"My name's Sour, it's nice to meet you too," He greeted timidly, finding himself smiling as well.

The lanky seventeen year old boy woke up slowly, taking a little while to find the will power to open his eyes. He let out a content sigh as he felt a familiar weight shift against his side.

'That was a nice dream,' he thought silently as he gently brushed a stray lock of hair away from his girlfriend's sleeping face. 'Who would've thought that that one random encounter would end up like this?' he continued with is thought as he ever so gently ran a thumb across her cheek. The two teenagers had become more frequent bed buddies, since after Kiki died, she needed the comfort. Usually the boy sneaking into the girl's room, but in this case the roles were switched, seeing as how if Sour's mom caught them she honestly wouldn't mind that much, where as if Jenny's dad caught them Sour would have his teeth forcefully ripped from his jaw, and plunged into his eyes. Still smiling, Sour slid out of bed without waking the ebony goddess sharing his covers. He had something special in mind, this was their three month anniversary, and Sour had been working on a special gift just for her. Grabbing his much more advanced laptop he started to play a track that he had put together from scratch. He played the music loud enough to stir Jenny, but not loud enough that the sound would bleed through the thick walls. Jenny woke up just as the lyrics kicked in. (I can't write songs, I'm so sorry, but I can't do it!) Sour's perfectly auto tuned voice sang of how much he loved the girl in his bed, how much she meant to him, how much he needed her, it almost drew tears to her eyes. Throwing the covers off of her, she strode over to her music man, and wrapped her arms around him.

"Happy anniversary, babe," he whispered into Jenny's ear, knowing that his deep voice carried rather far.

"I can't believe you got this together so quickly," Jenny cooed sweetly, as they started to sway to the music.

"Will I had some incentive," The albino whispered once more before planting a soft kiss on the side of Jenny's neck, making her shudder with an involuntary pleasure.

"Knock that off will you," She stifled a giggle. A devilish grin tugged at Sour's lips.

"What are you going to do about it?" Jenny let out a groan at these words, as she tackled her boyfriend onto his bed. Sour laughed as he stared deeply into the pair of beautiful brown eyes above him. At that moment he was taken back to the moment when he had first realized just how much he enjoyed looking into those eyes.

"Sour? Sour? Sour!" The fourteen year old boy was shaken out of his day dream by his best friend's call.

"Huh, what?" Sour asked, startled by the sudden change in volume.

"Dude, you were just staring into my eyes for like three minutes, it's creeping me out," Jenny explained with the half smile that was her straight face.

"Sorry, I just spaced out in your direction," The aspiring DJ explained abashedly as he rubbed the back of his head. Jenny bought this, having done the same thing herself on multiple occasions. The two were hanging around outside after school. They both still had their backpacks, as neither of them really wanted to go home yet. They enjoyed each other's company; it gave them a break from the constant harassment that they face in school.

"Well, what have we got here?" an unpleasantly familiar voice called out from behind the two teenagers. Sour and Jenny turned around to face their bully, Roger Keaton accompanied by his lackey, Sam Lee. "Looks like we found the ghost, and the girls who never frowns in one place," Roger mocked.

"Two birds with one stone," Sam agreed. Sour quickly shot out in front of Jenny; not that she had begun to shrink away or anything. At times this girl appeared to be dauntless.

"Hey, now we don't want any trouble," Sour stated, steadfast in his determination to not let either of these boys pass him.

"There won't be any trouble so long as you give us all the money you got. Roger was dressed in rags; a white undershirt too stained to be deemed white anymore, a jean jacket two sizes too big, and sweatpants made up an atrocious outfit. Sam wasn't much better; he wore a tattered black sweatshirt, and jeans with sleeves that bunched at his ankles because they were so long. It was obvious that theses bullies were a result of poverty, but that wasn't reason enough for Sour and Jenny to let them walk all over them.

"We don't have any money on us," Sour retorted for Jenny, knowing from past experience that she was broke.

"Well then, we got a problem," Sam put blatantly as he and Roger started to approach the freshmen.

"Now hold on a seco-!" Sour urged before he was slugged in the face, and onto the ground. Seeing that Sam was heading for Jenny Sour quickly kicked him in the side of the knee, evoking a grunt of pain before Sam stumbled onto his knees. From there Jenny imitated a move she had seen while watching MMA with her father, and jumped up, slamming her knee into the hooligan's face. That was it for Sam, but Roger was still fully able, and angry. The larger boy practically threw Jenny to the side as he turned to face Sour. What Roger wasn't expecting was that Sour would be ready, and received a right hook to the face as a reward. Roger was staggered, but not enough for his reflexes to be put off as a right jab was involuntarily thrown in between Sour's eyes causing him to stagger as well. Before the taller boy could recover he was forced against a brick wall and pounded mercilessly.

"You think you're tough?!" A rights hook into the kidneys. "You ain't' tough!" A left into the gut. "You ain't' nothing!" A right to the face. "But a dirty, sickly, fucking Albin-!" Roger's assault was cut short by the sound of splintering wood, and Roger falling over. Buck stood in a batter's position holding what remained of the wooden plank he had struck the young thug over the head with.

"I see you started the party without me," Buck quipped, not that you would know it if you had just met him.

"Thanks for the save, Buck," Sour exclaimed as he ran over to help Jenny, spitting out a gob of blood along the way. The ebony girl shook her dizziness off as Sour extended his hand.

"You okay?" He asked with genuine worry in his eyes. Jenny smiled as she took his hand.

"Yeah I'm fine," She answered as she was pulled to her feet. "You don't look too good though," Jenny said, now deeming it her turn to worry; Sour just spat out another gob of blood as he smiled down at her, looking warmly into her eyes.

"I think I'll live," Sour aid with a single catch in his voice. Sour would not know it, but that look had given Jenny the warmest feeling. She didn't know how to describe it; she had never felt anything like it before. She was pulled out of her thoughts by Sour who had given her a pat on her shoulder as he walked by. "Come on, we should get out of here," Sour implored without a care, as if he hadn't just gotten the metaphorical shit beaten out of him. Jenny nodded, before jogging to catch up with the long strides of her best friends.

Sour Grinned boundlessly at the girl above him.

"You know something?" He asked softly.

"What?" His love replied.

"I've always loved," He admitted, after eight years of waiting. Jenny wasn't at all surprised; she just smiled fondly and leaned closer, letting their lips brush against one another.

"Me too," She cooed before practically forcing her mouth to Sour's in a passionate, loving kiss. Love can happen fast, and love may last forever, but what love is best at is waiting for just the right moment.

(A/N: I am so unsure about this chapter. I've been writing it for 16 days, and I've read four times. I don't know what it is, but something's just off. Anyway I've decided to put up a cap on this story. My last chapter got 22 views and stayed there for a very long time, I want to see who all is reading so I'll need at least five reviews to continue. No problem right? See you next time!)


	24. Come To light

Disclaimer: I don't own Steven Universe

(A/N: Let's get right to the reviews!

Storywriter2003: Thank you very much!

Junior VB: Thank you!

Yoshi1029: Yes both the dream and the fight happened in real life. The dream was a memory of Sour meeting Jenny for the first time, and the memory of the fight was spurred by looking into Jenny's eyes and also showed the extent that the two would go for each other. I would've used line breaks to separate them from the rest of the chapter, but that would've made you feel like we were going back in time rather than them being remembered in real time.)

 **Chapter 24: Come Into Light**

 **The morning after chapter 21**

"Where could she have possibly gone?!" Priyanka yelled at her husband as he dialed 911 on his cell phone at almost seven in the morning. She had woken up that morning to get ready for her shift at the hospital, but had to call it off when she noticed that her daughter was missing.

"I don't know, maybe she had to go with the gems on an emergency mission," Doug replied, but with an only slightly calmer voice.

"Emergency or otherwise, she would have woken us up, or at the very least left a note-!" The overbearing mother was cut off by the sound of her front door opening and closing. The two parents froze in place as they watched their daughter walk into the center of their living room. She stared off into space, unblinking, unfeeling, and covered in dirt and sweat.

"Do you have any idea what time it is!?" Priyanka practically shouted as she stormed over to her daughter. Connie shifted her focus to her mother, but did not look her in the eye, nor did she reply. After a moment of silence and a worried glance between Doug and Priyanka, Connie started off up the stairs. The pair of parents followed her asking her questions all the way.

"Where were you?" Doug asked softer than his wife had before; now just trying to get an answer out of Connie rather than trying to display his disapproval.

"What happened?" Priyanka asked, following Doug's lead.

"Why are you so roughed up?" The questions were all unanswered by the nearly catatonic Connie as she entered her room, leaned Rose's sword against the wall in its usual place, threw back her covers, climbed onto her bed, and closed her eyes, falling asleep in an instant. Priyanka looked to her husband with more worry than before.

"You don't think?" She trailed off, letting her husband figure it out for himself; which he did and replied with.

"God I hope not," The aging security guard replied with a heavy groan. Priyanka reached for the door handle as closed the door so that it was just cracked before both he and her husband walked back to their bedroom to get ready for work. Both Doug and Priyanka had seen this before, but neither of them had ever expected for it to be so close to them.

 **Present Day**

Joshua walked along the edge of a cliff face, taking all too much joy in knowing that he wouldn't be hurt if he fell. He lit up the menthol cigarette in his mouth as he lifted a black walkie talkie to his face.

"This is snake charmer L calling in, everything alright out there?"

"This is Cobra we have encountered a level four corruption, possibly an incarnate! We can't see it, it's in the trees, and Cottonmouth is down!" At the panicked soldier's words Joshua leaped from the cliff and kept a steady stance as he slid down the dirt.

"I'm on my way soldier just stay out of sight, run, do something! Do not engage!" He shouted into the walkie talkie as he sprung into the trees at the bottom of the cliff.

"This snake charmer A calling in what's your location?" A new voice asks over the radio.

"Damnit rookies use your _caine_!" Victor's voice could be heard screaming as Joshua continued to sprint towards the monster that awaited them.

"R-right I knew that,"

"He's going to die and he going to take at least one of us with him," The gunslinger mumbled as he came up on a group of soldiers firing into the trees above them. One by one the black blur came and a soldier went.

"Shit!" Joshua cursed as he took out his dessert eagles and fired at the black blur, but to no avail. Only one soldier remained.

"This is it man! They're gone they're all gone! I don't want to die here!" The lone soldier screamed as he fired at a rustle he spotted in the trees.

"Calm down soldier! What's your name?

"Uh Adam," answered the soldier as the monster attempted to drop on him. A powerful shot from one of Josh's pistols sent it writhing to the ground. The sidewinder agents' barley caught a glimpse of its lithe form before it disappeared into the leaves once more.

"No, soldier your code name; what's your codename?" Joshua asked again as he focused a large amount of caine into his eyes in an attempt to spot the creature in the pitch blackness.

"Locust," The soldier said just above a whisper as all noise I the woods seemed to cease. "My codename is…" Locust started as the eerie silence only thickened. "Locust!" The last soldier screamed as he was dragged into the leaves at the speed of light.

"Motherfucker!" Joshua shouted as the monster disappeared once more. At that moment Ryker and Victor who had been assigned to further off posts came up on Joshua dodging the monster's repeated attempts to grab him.

"Victor, a little help would be nice!" Joshua shouted out to his partner.

"I'm on it!" Victor answered as he focused his caine into his core. Three bright white figures became clear to him. Two on the ground moving in sync with one another to combat with the third which looked somewhat like a skeleton as it leaped silently from branch to branch. "I've got a visual! Ryker above you!" Ryker dodged to the side as the grossly lithe creature dropped to the ground. Winding his arm back, Ryker landed a haymaker that would've felt like taking a block of steel to the face. The corrupted gem lay stunned against the tree it was thrown against finally letting the sidewinder agents to get a good look at it. A skeleton draped in a deep purple skin looked up at its opponents with glowing yellow eyes and a grin made up of bear trap like jaws. A pair of blood stained jeans, its only clothing. Without warning or any prior motions the creature leaped forward at a speed no human could hope to achieve. Victor was its first target. With claws raged it rushed the blind man who grabbed it by the wrist, using the momentum to fall backwards and throw the creature in the process. The purple creature was barely able to regain its Barings before two balls of fire pierced it through the knees. A screech filled the air as the creature pushed itself off the ground to Ryker, but was stopped short by a weight that landed forcefully on its back.

"Heya, sorry I'm late," The voice belonging to the rookie from before greeted cheerfully as he slammed his steel bat down on the creatures head destroying its form.

"Damnit Lucas, what took you so long?!" Victor asked the rookie as he picked up the purple gem in a black bubble. A slim Hispanic man wearing a blue hoodie and black windbreaker pants scratched at his beard as he slid his bat into the holster on his back.

"It took me a while to zero in on you guys. Sensing caine just isn't my strong suit," Lucas replied.

"Fellas, I think that may be the least of our worries," Ryker interjected as the group turned to look at the pair of jeans left behind by the corrupted gem, and was rapidly expelling black smoke.

"It wasn't part of its form?" Joshua asked curiously.

"Oh come on, what are you so worried about?" Lucas asked as he casually picked up the article of clothing. As he did so four scrolls fell out of the legs each one with its own hole punched through from Joshua's fire balls. The black smoke became thicker as it started to take form. "Ah, yeah that'll do it,"

(A/N: Dose anyone else want an explanation for the smoke monster in Together Breakfast? The next chapter will come out within the next few days as an apology for leaving you guys hanging since 5/31.)


	25. Smoke On The Water

Disclaimer: I don't own Steven Universe

(A/N: Welcome aboard Nerdy Nebula.)

 **Chapter 25: Smoke on the Water**

"The seals have been broken. All we can do now is mitigate the disaster," Ryker commented as he fixed his gloves.

"Damnit Josh, if you weren't so distracted-!" Victor started.

"Cut me some slack, I'm trying my best not to burn the whole forest down here!" The black smoke flew off in four separate directions. One into a tree, one into the ground, one into a boulder, and one into a rather large puddle from the recent rain.

"Entities of pure energy that possess corporeal hosts and lash out blindly without reason. Codename unholy ghosts," Lucas stated as he drew his bat once more to defend against the stone figure rising in front of him. This figure had no head, a huge torso, and giant fists that drug on the ground when it walked.

"Now don't you start!" Ryker complained as he took a stance against his own enemy. This one was made of dirt, towered above the four humans, had patches of grass resting on its back and arms, and like its brother had no head.

"What I read it on the reports it seemed like fun," Lucas replied as the other unholy ghosts took form. Joshua was now faced with a slim figure comprised of pure water. It must not have had much to work with because the monster was practically a stick figure. This left Victor to take care of the wood rapidly splitting away from the tree and warping mysteriously into his exact likeness.

"Well that's rather unsettling," Victor spoke like a normal person would about the morning news. The being made of water was the first to strike as it slashed its inexplicably sturdy claws at Joshua. The gunslinger was just barley quick enough to dodge. Before the Water had enough time to adjust its sight four rounds were emptied into its pole like abdomen if you could even call it that. However the four balls of fire did little against the unholy ghost and quickly fizzled out. In retaliation Water swung upwards catching Josh by the chest with its claws. It then thrusted forward, its limb stretching as it slammed the gunslinger into a tree, leaving a substantial impression in the wood. Water retracted its claws leaving Josh to fall to the ground. His clothes torn where the claws should have ripped through him.

"Thank god I was able to focus my caine to one place in time!" He thought to himself as he rolled out of the way of another strike. As Water's claws sank deep into the wood Josh ran in a half circle formation firing all the while. These bullets did just as much damage as the last pair did. "This isn't working what else can I do?"

Lucas didn't have much trouble dodging the slow moving Rock, as he jumped into the air landing a clean hit on its shoulder. The rookie agent looked up to see that he did no damage as he quickly rolled away from the heavy fist that cratered the ground where he once stood.

"Damn this thing is made of tough stuff. The gem it used to be must've been a master at hardening her own body," Lucas thought, letting his superior sense of judgment shine through his usual devil my care attitude. Dodging a right hook that would've undoubtedly sent him flying, Lucas got in close and forced his hand onto Rock's chest. A thick sheet of ice formed where Lucas had his hand. "Now!" The batter thought as he grand slammed his grey bat into the freshly iced area. The ice shattered, revealing a still undamaged Rock. The rookie didn't have much more time to do anything before a fist nearly half his size plowed into his middle. Just like you would've thought he went flying right past Ryker's head.

The veteran said nothing, knowing that he wasn't doing much better with his opponent than Lucas was with his.

"Alright, you heap of dirt I didn't last this long just to get put down by a bag of potting soil!" The aging man wound up and threw a hard punch right into Dirt's statuesque face. The soil gave in and let Ryker's fist sink deep inside without doing any real damage. As Ryker struggled to pull his most valued appendage free several vines sprung from the ground and wrapped around the sidewinder's arms and midsection. Once the flora had a sturdy grip Dirt let go and the vines retracted into the earth pulling Ryker with them. The veteran got to work quick, pulling and crushing the vines that bound him. Unfortunately for Ryker he couldn't free himself before Dirt made its first move and punched Ryker square in the chest.

Victor stared himself down, not quite sure what to do next other than cut it into several little pieces.

"Alright, I don't know why you look like me, but if you were hoping to gain a bit of sympathy that way you are sorely mistaken," Victor said smoothly as he pulled out a gold butterfly knife out of his suit jacket which he flipped and wielded masterfully. Wood was the first to strike it swung its fist swiftly just as Victor, but what the gem spirit couldn't account for was what its opponent did next. Before the hit landed Victor disappeared into a puff of smoke. Unbeknown to Wood Victor reappeared behind it with a second puff of smoke. Like an assassin in the Sidewinder confidante plunged the blade down to the hilt into Wood's head, and pulled it out just a swiftly. It became apparent that this wouldn't be enough as Wood started to warp so that it was looking Victor dead in the eyes. (Like the x100 in T2) A pair of sturdy looking roots grew out of Wood's hands before it attempted to swing at Victor again. Victor was able to hold off one hand by grabbing on hard to the spike like roots, but had no way of defending against the second pair. He grit his teeth as he took the hit right to the face, but did not let go. A long scratch stretching from his chin around his eye and to his forehead now bled heavily as Victor flipped Wood over his shoulder. Placing his knife firmly at the seam of his crotch, he ripped it straight through Wood's body; rendering the unholy ghost in twine. Having thought that was the end of it Victor straightened his back and started to walk away until his heightened senses picked up the sound of something shifting in the dirt. Quickly he leaped away before an array of wooden spikes sprung from Wood's corpse. Victor was able to dodge most of the spikes, but took a pretty deep gash to his right thigh. Victor simply watched as the unholy ghost's two halves pulled themselves up and started to merge together. However before they could finish their healing process a large blast of fire hit it square in the chest. It snapped its attention to Joshua who now held his smoking guns with a grin dodging Water's attacks by just a hair. Wood went to attack Joshua, but two more large blasts of fire had it stumbling to its knees as it burned helplessly. Victor now turned his attention to dirt and Ryker who were still going at it. Before Dirt could land another blow to Ryker's bruised face, Victor cut him free with one slash.

"Rookie, get over here you're not going to anything to that thing!" Victor called out.

"On it!" Lucas replied cheerfully as he ducked low and froze Rock's feet to the ground, and leaving it like that. "Oh I've got an idea for this one," Lucas cheered as he touched a hand to Dirt's side while it was busy with Victor and Ryker. As He jumped back a good portion of Dirt's side froze solid.

"Good thinking Rookie!" Ryker complimented as he punched the frozen [portion. The frosted dirt fell away as Lucas repeated the process on Dirt's head which Ryker punched away once more. That must have been enough because after that it collapsed back into the shapeless pile of dirt it came from.

"Alright, I think I know how to deal with the boulder," Ryker said as he approached Rock who had just managed to break free of the ice. With a small bound the veteran pounced on top of Rock and quickly began punching rapidly. Slowly but surely a small crack began to spread on Rock's top. His job done, Ryker leaped back off of the unholy ghost.

"The harder the rock the less pressure needs to be applied to a small crack. It's up to you now Rookie," Ryker passed off the metaphorical torch.

"I've got you!" Lucas cheered as he took Ryker's place and placed his hand over the crack. Rock stopped moving as it started to emit shrill cries. Ice grew in the crack causing it to widen and deepen rapidly. With one crack the split grew half way down Rock's back. Lucas and Ryker switched places one last time as he slammed his hardest hit into the center of the ice filled crack, causing it to fall apart.

"Alright last one," Lucas cheered, excited to finish his first mission.

"Hurry up will you? I've been dodging for damn near twenty minutes!" Joshua yelled as he ducked under yet another slash. Lucas charged in freezing Water in one touch; allowing Joshua to finally end the fight with one well-placed pistol whip. "Good work, rookie!" Joshua congratulated as he walked away from the remains of his opponent.

"Thanks, I told you you were underestimating me,"

"What are you talking about? I didn't doubt you for a second," Joshua denied as his friends joined in the laughter.

Meanwhile two sets of shoes clacked loudly as they walked down a hallway. The figures opened a door and walked into the small room with nothing but a computer on a table.

"Charlie, show yourself," A female voice commanded.

"We've waited long enough," added a male voice. The Screen lit up as Charlies familiar voice came over the other side.

"Ah agents Mahashewarren, it's been a while since I've heard from you"

(A/N: I'm sorry.)


End file.
